4Zb v * AH, * ^ ,f v v> ^ « O -£► * 3 „ ' e A*<3 ,0" °." ° t ^ ^°<* V » I 1 t • o A -^ * o • » - ^ o> .£ o v ^ *5 n N o <^> o V % & •K V «V <£ ^ ' * Or *o \& . L ' * ~ j,°-n » -z-r^* a ", * * V 4 O '■ p f 4> . . , <5> * s - ^ V ,0' V O ^ A*" * ■y , < - '7 .0' " * G * r. ^ /if ■<*. *7 - > ** ** ■ ^0 \- ^ e o O X a r > o v\ ^ ;/■ ^°v o ,0 .*& V < •J' -y EC- G°_l" "^ ^o O M V . ^ '> V "o V* /| o o ■» / <2 AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph. D. Gbe Hmerican Crisis Biographies Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph.D. With the counsel and advice of Professor John B. McMaster, of the University of Pennsylvania. Each i2mo, cloth, with frontispiece portrait. Price $1.25 net; by mail, $137. These biographies will constitute a complete and comprehensive history of the great American sectional struggle in the form of readable and authoritative biography. The editor has enlisted the co-operation of many competent writers, as will be noted from the list given below. An interesting feature of the undertaking is that the series is to be im- Rartial, Southern writers having been assigned to Southern subjects and [orthern writers to Northern suDJects, but all will belong to the younger generation of writers, thus assuring freedom from any suspicion of war- time prejudice. The Civil War will not be treated as a rebellion, but as the great event in the history of our nation, which, after forty years, it is now clearly recognized to have been. Now ready : Abraham Lincoln. By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer. Thomas H. Benton. By Joseph M. Rogers. David G. Farragut. By John R. Spears. William T. Sherman. By Edward Robins. Frederick Douglass. By Booker T. Washington. Judah P. Benjamin. By Pierce Butler. Robert E. Lee. By Philip Alexander Bruce. Jefferson Davis. By Prof. W. E. Dodd. Alexander H. Stephens. By Louis Pendleton. John C. Calhoun. By Gaillard Hunt. " Stonewall" Jackson. By Henry Alexander White. John Brown. By W. E. Burghardt Dubois. Charles Sumner. By Prof. George H. Haynes. Henry Clay. By Thomas H. Clay. In preparation : Daniel Webster. By Prof. C. H. Van Tyne. William Lloyd Garrison. By Lindsay Swift. William H. Seward. By Edward Everett Hale, Jr. Stephen A. Douglas. By Prof. Henry Parker Willis. Thaddeus Stevens. By Prof. J. A. Woodburn. Andrew Johnson. By Prof. Walter L. Fleming. Ulysses S. Grant. By Prof. Franklin S. Edmonds. Edwin M. Stanton. By Edward S. Corwin. Robert Toombs. By Prof. U. B. Phillips. Jay Cooke. By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer. AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES Henry Clay by HIS GRANDSON THOMAS HART CLAY Completed by ELLIS PAXSON OBERHOLTZER PH. D. PHILADELPHIA GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY PUBLISHERS ET-2 Copyright, 1910, by George W. Jacobs & Company Published February, iQio All rights reserved Printed in U. S. A. ©CLA25S PREFACE This life of Henry Clay was begun by his grand- son, Thomas Hart Clay. Other hands have finished it. Mr. Clay died April 8, 1907, and the completion of the book has been accomplished by Dr. Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, the editor of the series, with the assistance of Mrs. Clay. Mr. Clay was eminently suited for the work of writing the life of his grandfather. He was a man of literary taste, cultivated and scholarly, and he had been a careful student of the political history of the United States. Free from prejudice, with a mind full of judicious admiration for his great an- cestor, his aim in this book has been to recall to the minds of Americans the patriotism and statesman- ship of Henry Clay, and to recount the charming characteristics which made him the most beloved of public men. Thanks are due Miss Harrison of Lexington for the use of the diary of her father, James O. Harri- son. Mr. Harrison was a Kentuckian, a lawyer of great ability and a man who had the esteem and re- gard of the whole community. Always a Democrat yet always a devoted friend of Henry Clay, whom he probably knew better than any other of Mr. Clay's contemporaries, Mr. Harrison was chosen to be one of his executors. 6 PREFACE Appreciation and thanks are to be expressed to Gaillard Hunt for permission given Mr. Clay to make use of his delightful book, The First Forty Years of Washington Society, and to Charles Scrib- ner's Sons, the publishers of the volume, for their gracious consent also. A. G. C. NOTE BY THE EDITOR While I was seeking a writer of a biography of Henry Clay, Bishop Lewis William Burton of Keutucky was addressed for a suggestion. He at once recommended Mr. Clay's grandson, Thomas H. Clay of Lexington, who had been collecting material for this work for many years. His sudden death interrupted his labors upon the volume, as Mrs. Clay states in the preface, and she has very kindly supplemented my efforts to complete it in the spirit in which it was begun. It is believed that there is in existence little if any material which is not made use of in this biography. Clay's papers and effects were scattered among his descendants. Before the war "Ashland" was torn down and rebuilt by his son, James B. Clay, whose widow a few years later sold it to Kentucky, which proposed to convert it into a college. The estate afterward returned to the possession of the family, and it is now the home of Mrs. Henry Clay Mc- Dowell, a daughter of Henry Clay, Jr., who was killed at Buena Vista. When " Ashland" was purchased by the state, many baskets of letters were taken from the garrets by a man in no way connected with the family. Some, it is said, were blown by the winds up and down t the roads ; the rest were placed in a storage- house, where they were destroyed by fire. While 8 NOTE BY THE EDITOR it is rather disappointing that in the preparation of this book so comparatively lew new sources of in- formation have been opened up, it is satisfying to know that what it is possible to find has been found, and that no considerable number of letters remain anywhere untouched. E. P. O. CONTENTS I. Early Years 15 II. Entrance Into Public Life . . 34 III. The War of 1812 .... 59 IV. Constructive Policies ... 81 V. The Missouri Compromise . . 105 VI. The Election of 1824 . . .125 VII. Secretary of State . . .147 VIII. Nullification and Compromise . 172 IX. The War Against Jackson . .216 X. "Tippecanoe and Tyler , Too " . 244 XI. Slavery and Anti-Slavery . . 288 XII. The Last Great Compromise . . 323 XIII. The Last Two Years . . .368 XIV. Personal Characteristics . . 387 Bibliography 430 Index 434 CHRONOLOGY 1777— Birth of Henry Clay, April 12th, in the " Slashes," Hanover County, Va., the fifth of seven children. 1781 — Death of his father, Rev. John Clay, a Baptist clergyman. 1791 — His mother having remarried, Henry Clay becomes a clerk in a retail store in Richmond. 1792 — Appointed to a place in the office of the Clerk of the High Court of Chancery in Richmond where he falls under the influence of Chancellor Wythe and becomes a student at law. His mother removes to Kentucky. 1797 —Follows his mother and stepfather to Kentucky u to grow up with the West." He settles in Lexington as a lawyer. 1799 — Marries Lucretia Hart, daughter of Colonel Thomas Hart. Writes letters against slavery. 1803 — Elected to a seat in the state legislature, his first political office. 1806 — Defends Aaron Burr, whom he believed to be a persecuted man. Elected to the Senate of the United States to fill an unexpired term before he is thirty years of age. 1807 — Returned to the state legislature, where he becomes Speaker of the Assembly. 1809 — Again sent to the United States Senate to fill an un- finished term. 1810-11— Makes himself by his oratory and his bold advocacy of the nation's rights the leader of the Young Republicans. 1811 — Elected to the House of Representatives at Washington from the Lexington district and at once becomes Speaker. He warmly champions American rights and is an in- fluence in bringing on the War of 1812. 1813 — Delivers a great speech in favor of "Free Trade and Seamen's Rights." 1814 — Resigns the speakership and goes to Europe as a peace commissioner. Treaty of Ghent signed on December 24th. 12 CHRONOLOGY 1815 — Returns home after a visit to England to find himself re- elected to his place in the House of Representatives where he is again made .Speaker. Declines the mission to Russia. 1816 — Declines a place in President Madison's cabinet as Secre- tary of War. Becomes a leading advocate of constructive policies, including a protective tariff, internal improve- ments and a national bank. 1817 — Invited to become Secretary of War and then Minister to England by President Monroe, but he declines both offices and continues to act as Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives, where he soon becomes an opponent of the ad- ministration. 1818 — Orations in behalf of the people of the South American states. 1819 — Severe arraignment of General Jackson's course in Florida in the previous year. Ib20 — Asserts the right of the United States to Texas under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase. Advocates the Missouri Compromise. Retires from public life to look after his embarrassed private affairs. 1821 — Returns to Washington to assist in the final adjustment of the Missouri question. 1823 — Reelected to Congress and again to the speakership. Avows his candidacy for the presidency in succession to Monroe. 1824 — Ninety-nine electoral votes being cast for Jackson, eighty- four for Adams, forty-one for Crawford and thirty-seven for Clay, election from the three highest devolves upon the House of Representatives. 1825 — Clay supports Adams who is elected over Jackson. Clay becomes Secretary of State. Origin of the " corrupt bar- gain " story. I -•Jo'— Duel with John Randolph for hi9 abusive speech alluding to "the coalition of Blifil and Black George." Clay organizes the first Pan-American Congress. 1828 — Adams a candidate to succeed himself beaten by Jackson for President. 1829— Clay retires from the State Department and returns to Kentucky, once more a private citizen. CHEOXOLOGY 13 1831 — Elected to the United States Senate by the legislature of Kentucky where he combats Jackson's policies and founds the Whig party. Nominated for the presidency at a convention at Baltimore, with John Sergeant of Pennsyl- vania as the candidate for Vice-President. 1832 — Outlines his policies on the subject of the bank, the "American system" and other matters. Jackson se- cures 219 electoral votes and Clay only 49. 1833 — South Carolina's threats of nullification because of an offensive tariff law met by a compromise. Jackson orders a removal of the deposits from the United States Bank. 1834 — The Senate censures the President, Clay leading the as- sault. 1836— General W. H. Harrison and others put forward as Whig candidates for the presidency. Van Buren, Jackson's choice as his successor, elected by a great majority. 1837 — The Jackson censure by the Senate is expunged, Benton leadiug the fight. Jackson's "reign " comes to an end. Clay reelected to the Senate. 1839 — His great debates with Calhoun. Whig national con- vention meets at Harrisburg. Political managers set aside Clay to nominate General Harrison and John Tyler. 1840 — Clay supports the party ticket. Harrison and Tyler are elected by large majorities. 1841 — Harrison dies and Tyler becomes President, soon to break with Clay and the Whig party. 1842 — Clay retires from Congress after an affecting farewell ad- dress. 1844 — Whig candidate for the presidency. Writes the "Raleigh" and " Alabama " Letters on the subject of the annexation of Texas. Defeated by James K. Polk by narrow majorities in New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Louisiana. 1845— His friends raise a large sum of money and lift the mortgage from " Ashland," his home near Lexington. 1848— Deceived, he again allows the use of his name as a candidate for the presidency. Nomination and election of Zachary Taylor. 1849— Again sent to the Senate of the United States to aid in the settlement of the issues raised by the Mexican War. 14 CHRONOLOGY 1850 — Proposes a compromise which after long and acrimoni- ous debate is adopted. The Nashville convention meets. The South is temporarily pacified. 1851 — Continues his efforts to keep the two sections at peace. Goes to Cuba for his health, which is much impaired. 1852— Meets Kossuth. Dies in Washington June 29th, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Buried in Lexington after a remarkable series of funeral ceremonies as the corse proceeds through many states. HENRY CLAY CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS In the county of Hanover, Virginia, in a neigh- borhood called the " Slashes," because it was largely marsh- land overgrown with bushes, on April 12, 1777, Henry Clay was born. His father, the Reverend John Clay, was a Baptist minister, a man of great dignity and eloquence, and from him Henry Clay inherited his incomparable voice. Whenever it was known that John Clay was to preach, the people flocked to hear him, and in the summer-time he would speak from a great flat stone on the bank of the South Anna River, in whose clear waters he baptized many who felt the burden of their sins, and wished them washed away. According to Hotten's Original Lists of Emigrants to America, 1600-1700, among the "Musters of the Inhabitants in Virginia" is found this : "The Muster of the Inhabitants of Jordan's Jorney, Charles Cittie, taken the 21st of January, 1624. "The Muster of John Claye [so spelled in the record] : 16 HENEY CLAY " John Claye arrived in the Treasuror, February, L613. " Ann, his wife, in the Ann, August, 1623. Servant : "William Nicholls, aged 26 yeres, in the Dutie, in May, 1619." This John Claye was the first of the name to come to America, and he was the ancestor of Henry Clay. He was known as Captain John Claye, the English Grenadier, and he was one of the Jamestown colonists. The Eeverend John Clay, Henry Clay's father, married Elizabeth Hudson, the younger of the two daughters of George Hudson and Elizabeth Jen- nings Hudson. George Hudson was a man of im- portance in Henrico County and was an inspector of tobacco at Hanover Court- House. His elder daugh- ter, Mary, married John Watkins, who, before Kentucky became a state, removed to that part of Virginia, and in 1792, when Kentucky was admitted into the Union, he was a delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention. He was also a representative in the first legislature of the new state. For some unknown reason the Eeverend John Clay was frequently called "Sir" John Clay, and in a decree of court given in a friendly suit between the two daughters of George Hudson, Mary Wat- kins and Elizabeth Clay, it is stated that "the money is subject to the disposition of their husbands, John Watkins and Sir John Clay." On this sub- ject Benry Clay wrote to a person who wished to establish some relationship with him: "The de- sire to trace out your ancestry is very natural. I EAELY YEAES 17 have often felt it in respect to mine, but I have no written, and very imperfect traditional accounts of them. . . . My ancestors emigrated from Eng land and settled in the colony of Virginia early, I believe, in the seventeenth century. My father was born there, not far from Eichmond, on the south side of the James Eiver. He removed to Hanover County, shortly before my birth in that county. His name was John, and he was sometimes called Sir John Clay (as I have seen in the record of ju- dicial proceedings), but he had no right to that title. It was a sobriquet which he somehow acquired. . . . My father was a Baptist preacher." * To John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay were born eight children, three daughters and five sons. Two of the daughters died in early womanhood, one in infancy. Of the five sons, George, the eldest child, died in Virginia just after coming of age. The second son, Henry, died in infancy. John, the sixth child, grew to manhood and became a mer- chant in New Orleans. He died in that city, leav- ing no children. The seventh child was Henry, named for the little boy who had died, and the eighth child was Porter Clay. The Eeverend John Clay died in 1781, when his son Henry was between four and five years old. A short time after his father's death, the boy was sent to the country school in the neighborhood, taught by an Englishman named Peter Deacon. Here he learned reading, writing, and a very little arithme- tic. In this log schoolhouse in the ''Slashes," the only school he ever attended, he spent three years, 1 Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, edited by Calvin Colton. 18 HENRY CLAY and of its master he always had the kindliest recol- lections. After leaving this school he lived with his mother on the little farm which was their home, and as- sisted her in such duties as a boy of his age could perform, being often seen on his way to a neighbor- ing mill with a bag of grain ; wherefore his popular title later in political campaigns of the " Mill Boy of the Slashes." Ten years after the death of John Clay, Mrs. Clay married Henry Watkins, the younger brother of her sister Mary's husband. Captain Watkins has been described as " an elegant, accomplished gentle- man, of good blood, and of goodly wealth," and he was a kind stepfather to the young Clays. When Henry was fourteen years of age Captain Watkins procured for him a situation as clerk in a small store for general merchandise, in Richmond, kept by Richard Denny, and here he remained one year. In his stepson Captain Watkins seems to have felt special interest, and soon realized that he de- served better opportunities than could be met with in Mr. Denny's little store. Through the aid of his friend, Colonel Thomas Tinsley, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he obtained for the boy a clerkship in the office of Tinsley' s brother, Peter, who was Clerk of the High Court of Chancery of which George Wythe was Chancellor. The latter was a frequent visitor at Mr. Tinsley' s office, where he noticed the diligence of the young clerk, and also his neat penmanship. He needed an amanuensis for writing out and recording the decisions of the court, so he secured the services of Clay, who still EARLY YEARS 19 retained his place with Mr. Tinsley, the under- standing being that he was to be at the chancellor's service upon demand. This arrangement lasted for nearly four years when, by the advice of Chancellor Wythe, he took up the study of law in the office of Attorney-General Brooke, who was afterward Governor of Virginia. For a year he was an in- mate of that gentleman's home. This association was of infinite value to the young man, as through it he mingled with the best society of Richmond, and his character and manners were fashioned to the chivalric standards of ' i Old Virginia. ' ' His faithful work, his intelligence, his courtesy and engaging manners secured for him the most friendly consideration of Chancellor Wythe, who di- rected his reading and studies, and placed his own library at the youth's disposal. Nearly every day in the chancellor's office he met the most distin- guished men of Virginia, many of whom had served in the councils of the nation during the troublous times of the Revolution. Twice he had the extreme good fortune to hear Patrick Henry, whose birth and beginnings were also in Hanover County. "Above all, in these relations," says Robert C. Winthrop, "he acquired the friendship of George Wythe, who was not only one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a distinguished member of the Virginia convention which ratified the Federal Constitution, of which he was an earnest advocate and supporter, but who signalized his love of human freedom by emancipating all his negroes before his own death and making provision for their subsistence. The influence of such a friendship and 20 HENKY CLAY such an example could hardly fail to manifest itself in the future of any one who enjoyed it. It was better than an education." 1 In 1792, shortly after Henry Clay was established in Mr. Tinsley's office, Captain Watkins with his family removed to Kentucky which had just been admitted into the Union. Even as late as 1792 the journey from Hanover, Virginia, to Kentucky was no small undertaking. The roads were mere trails and bands of roving Indians were frequently en- countered, but the party arrived safely in Woodford County, where they resided for many years. With Captain Watkins and his wife came her two son3, John and Porter Clay. The latter, the youngest of the Clay children, was apprenticed to a cabinet- maker, and in the Kentucke 2 Gazette of December 7, 1805, appears his advertisement as a chair and cab- inet-maker. He was a man of great piety and late in life became a Baptist minister. Kemoving to Mis- souri, he preached the first English sermon ever preached west of the Mississippi Kiver. He died on December 30, 1819, at Camden, Ark. Henry Clay studied law for one year and was ad- mitted to practice in the Virginia Court of Appeals in 1797, shortly afterward changing his residence to Lexington, Ky. He had felt the separation from his mother, and the longing to be near her induced him to follow her over the mountains. She was a woman of great vigor of mind, warm-hearted and 1 Robert C. Winthrop, Memoir of Henry Clay. For a succinct account of the life of this able Virginian see Saudersou's Biog- raphies of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. 2 The early spelling. EAELY YEAKS 21 imperious, loving to her children and a devoted friend. She died in 1829 in the eightieth year of her age, and was buried in the country graveyard near her home. In 1851, the year before his death, Henry Clay had her remains removed to the beautiful ceme- tery on the outskirts of Lexington and placed in his lot there. Over her grave he caused to be erected a simple monument of Italian marble with this in- scription upon it : Elizabeth Waikins Formerly Elizabeth Clay Born 1750 Died 1829. This monument, a tribute to her many domestic virtues Has been prompted by the filial affection and veneration Of one of her grateful sons H. Clay. Henry Clay arrived in Lexington in November, 1797, but he did not immediately begin to practice his profession, wisely waiting until he could become familiar with the statutes of Kentucky, and with the peculiarities of local procedure. In March, 1798, the following entry appears in the order-book of the Lexington District Court : " Henry Clay, Esquire, produced in Court a license and on his motion is permitted to practice as an Attorney- at -Law in this Court, and thereupon took the several oaths by Law prescribed.' ' For several months he devoted himself to further study of the law, and he joined a debating society whose proceedings were open to the public, and were attended by "the fashion and intelligence of the 22 HENRY CLAY town." He was soon admired and courted by the people. In his farewell address to the Senate in 1842 he said: " Scarce had I set my foot on her [Kentucky's] generous soil when I was seized and embraced with parental fondness, caressed as though a favorite child, and patronized with liberal and un- bounded munificence." On all public occasions he was greatly sought for, and this notice appears in the Kentucke Gazette of July 10, 1800 : " Friday last being the anniversary of American Independence, it was celebrated in this place with the usual joy and enthusiasm. At twelve o'clock the volunteer companies of Infantry and Horse assembled at the Public Square, attended by a considerable concourse of citizens. They proceeded to the Court- House, where an eloquent oration was delivered by Henry Clay, Esquire." When Henry Clay changed his home from Rich- mond, Va., to Lexington, Ky., that town was al- ready a place of importance. It was the capital of the " blue grass country" and was surrounded then, as now, by broad and beautiful lauds. Its very name no doubt contributed to its fame, as it was a patri- otic memorial of the first battle-ground of the Revo- lution by a few hunters who had established their camp-fires there. The hardy pioneer settlers were followed by a development of culture which was probably not surpassed in any town west of the Al- leghanies at that early day. In it was published the first newspaper beyond the mountains, the Kentucke Gazette, established in 1787 ; and the first library in the West was started there iu 1705. The society of the town was intelligent and cultivated, and the EAELY YEAES 23 bar of Lexington at that time was composed of a high type of able men. It was also a place of com- mercial importance and a manufacturing centre. As early as 1797 it possessed a " public theatre and a company of actors." In the Navigator, published in Pittsburg in 1801, this description of the town appears : "Lexington, in fact, is a place of great business, and the inhabitants seem peculiarly and happily calculated to enjoy their situation, and the hospitality and friendship of each other. The prevailing disposition in the people makes the place very lively and highly agreeable to strangers. ' ' A student of the times says: "The society of those early days was primitive only in the sense of being somewhat colored by its primitive environ- ment, and in possessing certain uncouth elements inseparable to a frontier settlement. It was far from being immature, or unpolished, or illiterate. The settlers brought with them the high ideals of the 1 Old Dominion.' The husbands and brothers came fresh from the training hands of the most vigorous and intellectual race of men the world has ever seen, and in not a few instances the pupils had outstripped their masters." l One of the members of the Lexington bar was George Nicholas, a statesman as well as an eminent lawyer. "His powers of argumentation, " it is re- lated, "were of the highest order and his knowl- edge of the laws and institutions of his country placed him in the first rank of distinguished men by whose wisdom and patriotism they were estab- 1 Samuel M. Wilson, Early Bar of Fayette County. 24 HENKY CLAY lished. A member of the [Virginia] convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States, he was the associate of Madison, of Randolph, and of Patrick Henry, and he came to Kentucky in the fulness of his fame and in the maturity of his intel- lectual strength." ! He was the first Attorney- General of Kentucky, appointed by Isaac Shelby, the first Governor, and Humphrey Marshall in his History of Kentucky, said of him : "If the Consti- tution of Kentucky could be ascribed to any one man, it should doubtless be to Colonel George Nicholas, who took the lead in the convention to which he was justly entitled by his superiority of talents and acquirements, in the use of which he was known to be liberal. The resemblance observ- able in the Constitution of Kentucky to that of the United States may be accounted for by his admira- tion of the merits of the original, and the distin- guished part he had taken in the convention of Virginia in favour of its adoption. " Another member of the bar was John Breckin- ridge, who became Attorney -General under Presi- dent Jefferson. As a lawyer none excelled him and few were his equals. James Brown, the first Secretary of State of Kentucky, was also a member of the Lexington bar at this time. He was a man of great culture and legal ability. After the purchase of Louisiana he removed to New Orleans, where he aided Edward Livingston to prepare the Civil Code of Louisiana, He was twice a United States senator from Louisiana, and he was appointed by President Monroe Minister 1 From a speech by Governor Charles Morehead. EARLY YEAES 25 to France, being continued in that office by Presi- dent John Quincy Adams. Perhaps the most remarkable member of the group, however, was Joseph Hamilton Daviess, who at twenty -five was considered to have the best judi- cial mind in Kentucky, and who was the first lawj^er from the West to make a speech in the Supreme Court of the United States. Such were the men among whom Henry Clay began the practice of law. He himself said in a speech made at Lexington on June 6, 1842: "I obtained a license to practice the profession from the judges of the Court of Appeals of Virginia and established myself in Lexington in 1797, without patrons, without the means of paying my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar uncommonly dis- tinguished by eminent members. " At this time there was much litigation over the titles of land which had been granted by Virginia to settlers in Kentucky. Many of these grants were made to soldiers who had served in the Revolution- ary War, and the land had never been surveyed and was not definitely indicated by the warrants, " two white oaks and a sugar- tree" being considered sufficient marks in many instances. Sometimes half a dozen grants covered the same area and the courts were filled with suits involving the land laws of Virginia and Kentucky. In the settlement of these claims Henry Clay won much distinction, and in criminal cases also his ability was unusual, it being shown in the records of the courts wherein he practiced that no prisoner ever defended by him received capital punishment. ' * I immediately 26 HENRY CLAY rushed into a successful and lucrative practice," he said, in 1842, in recalling his early years at the Lexington- bar. "When I was a youth," writes James O. Harrison in his Reminiscences of Mr. Clay, " I was curious to learn, from those who had heard his early efforts, the impression he made on the public at the beginning of his career. ' He was great from the beginning,' was the general reply." l So sudden a success would be difficult to under- stand without a knowledge of the personality of the man. On this subject Mr. Harrison continues : " Mr. Clay was six feet one inch in height, with- out being fleshy or bulky and was of commanding presence, especially when aroused. Though his long limbs were somewhat loosely put together, yet he was never awkward or seemingly embarrassed. His complexion was unusually fair, his eyes were gray and when excited full of fire. His forehead was high, with a tendency to baldness, his nose was prominent and very slightly arched and finely formed. His mouth was unusually large— a long and deep horizontal cut— without being uncouth, and his hair, when a young man, exceedingly white. If ever there was magnetism in the human voice it was in his. Its tone always harmonized with the toue of his emotion, and never failed to rivet atten- tion and touch the heart. Strangers, persons who never saw him and who, of course, never felt the potency of his presence and manner, can hardly understand the sort of impression made on others by what was called the magnetism of the man. " He was naturally sympathetic, hopeful, buoy- 1 Mr. Harrison's MS. Memoirs. EAELY YEAES 27 ant. He was not subject to moods of despond- ency, or gloom, though during his long life he had many heavy afflictions to meet and to bear. His buoyancy, so characteristic of the man in his prime, never died out, though tempered by time. It gave charming freshness to his conversation even when sinking uuder the heaviness of age. Whatever the occasion or his mood, or whatever the company or subject of conversation, there was something in his presence and manner which impressed those around him that within his personality and beneath that manner there was a power, a force of character to be respected, feared, followed and honored. Had this quiet force been arrogantly, or ostentatious] y displayed, it would have broken the charm that made him so attractive and at the same time so commanding. " ' Among the early settlers of Lexington was Colonel Thomas Hart, who had come to Kentucky from Hagerstown, Md., in 1794. He was a member of the famous Henderson Company, which accom- plished so much for the early colonization of Ken- tucky, and he was the owner of vast tracts of land there and in Tennessee. Soon after his arrival in the West he became a resident of Lexington, where he established himself as a merchant and a trader. He was a man of great enterprise and integrity, and a public-spirited citizen. The doors of his hospi- table home were always open to friend and stranger, and perhaps no one had a wider acquaintance all through the Western country, where he was held in high esteem. In 1797 he organized and became the 1 Mr. Harrison's MS. 28 HENKY CLAY president of a society called the " Lexington Emi- gration Society" whose object was to give infor- mal ion concerning the laud about the towu, and to offer inducements to industrious farmers and mechanics to settle in that region. On April 11, 1797, two years after Lexington be- came his home, Henry Clay married Lucretia Hart, a daughter of Colonel Hart. She was bom in Hagerstown, March 18, 1781, and at the time of her marriage she was eighteen, while her husband was twenty-two years old. The house in which they were married still stands on one of the quiet streets of Lexington. Mrs. Clay was a woman of great dignity, and, 1 hough never a beauty, she always attracted atten- tion and inspired respect. During the early years of her husband's official residence in Washington she lived there, and while Mr. Clay was Secretary of State the weekly levees were held alternately at the President's and at his house. "Ashland," the beautiful home in Kentucky, was purchased in 1806 and of it Mr. Clay once wrote to a friend : "Iaiu in one respect better off than Moses. He died in sight of and without reaching the Promised Laud. I occupy as good a farm as any he would have found had he reached it, aud ' Ashland ' has been acquired, not by hereditary descent but by my own labor." This home is within a mile and a half of the court-house in Lexingtou and is surrounded by beautiful lawus whose towering trees have sheltered many distinguished guests attracted thither by the lame of Henry Clay. It is of her visit to "Ash- land " in 1835 that Harriet Marti neau wrote : EARLY YEARS 29 " I stayed some weeks in the house of a wealthy landowner in Kentucky. Our days were passed in great luxury, aud the hottest of them very idly. The house was in the midst of grounds gay with verdure and flowers, in the opening month of June, and our favorite seats were the steps of the hall, and chairs under the trees. From there we could watch the play of the children on the grass-plat, and some of the drolleries of the little negroes. The redbird and the bluebird flew close by ; the black and white woodpecker with crimson head tapped at all the tree-trunks, as if we were no interruption. We relished the table fare after that with which we had been obliged to content ourselves on board the steam- boats. Tender meats, fresh vegetables, good claret and champagne, with the daily piles of strawberries and towers of ice-cream were welcome luxuries. There were thirty-three horses in the stables, and we roved about the neighboring country accordingly. There was more literature at hand than time to profit by it. Books could be had at home ; but not the woods of Kentucky ; — clear sunny woods with maple and sycamore springing up to a height which makes man seem dwarfish. The glades with their turf so clean, every fallen leaf having been absorbed, re- minded me of Ivanhoe. I almost looked for Gurth in my rambles. All this was, not many years ago, one vast cane-brake, with a multitude of buffalo and deer, the pea-vine spreading everywhere, and the fertility even greater than now." 1 For nearly fifty years the beautifying of " Ash- land " was a labor of love with both Mr. and Mrs. 1 Harriet Martineau, Society in America, Vol. I, p. 139. 30 HENRY CLAY Clay, and many of the fine trees which still orna- ment the spacious lawns were planted, by him. He was Interested in everything pertaining to agri- culture, and lie made many horticultural experi- ments. He was extremely fond of flowers and his taste for ornamental trees and plants was an inspira- tion to his neighbors and acquaintances. He took great pride also in his horses and cattle, and was in- terested in the importation of fine stock from Eng- land. The home needed the wise care of its owner and as Mr. Clay's public services required him to be ab- sent, Mrs. Clay gladly undertook its management. No woman ever was better qualified for the per- formance of the various duties which devolved upon her. She was said to be as good a farmer as her husband, and no farmer in Fayette County excelled him. A farm of six hundred acres, with the added care of the servants belonging to the place, was a heavy burden for a woman to bear, and of her Mr. Clay said at " Ashland, " when expressing thanks for a gift which had been made to her by some of his admirers: "I have been so long and deeply absorbed in public affairs as to be compelled to sur- render to this beloved partner of my joys and sor- rows the almost sole management of our domestic concerns: and how diligently, how nobly she has performed the duties thus devolved upon her can be known to no mortal save myself alone. Why, my friends, again and again has she saved our home from bankruptcy." Always reserved In manner, this characteristic in- creased with age, and after the death of her husband, EAKLY YEARS 31 her life was quiet and secluded. She died on April 6, 1864. Eleven children were born to them, six daughters and five sons. Two of the daughters died in infancy and two in childhood, one, Eliza H., at the age of twelve, during a journey to Washington in 1825. ^iShe was buried in a little Baptist churchyard in Lebanon, O. , and later was reinterred in the cemetery at Lexington. The fourth child, Susan Hart, mar- ried Martin Duralde of New Orleans and early died there, leaving two sons. The fifth child was Ann, who married James Erwiu, of New Orleans. Her beautiful summer home in Kentucky adjoined ' ' Ashland ' ' and there was daily intercourse between the two households. Mrs. Erwin was a woman of rare charm, accomplished and brilliant, and more like her father in intellect than any of his children. She died suddenly in New Orleans in December, 1835, and of this sad event Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, who knew the family intimately, wrote to a friend : " Poor Mr. Clay was laughing and talking and joking with some friends when his papers and letters were brought to him. He naturally first opened the letter from home. A friend who was with him says his first words were, l Every tie to life is broken. ' He continued that day in almost a state of distraction, but has, I am told, become more com- posed though in the deepest affliction. Ann was his pride, as well as his joy, and of all his children his greatest comfort. She was my favorite, so frank, gay and warm-hearted." * 1 Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, First Forty Years of Washing- ton Society, p. 375. 32 HENRY CLAY In reply to a letter from Mrs. Smith, expressing her sympathy, Mr. Clay wrote froni Washington on December 31, 1835 : " I received your kind letter of this date. From no friend could condolence on the occasion of my recent heavy loss have come more welcomely, but, dear madam, all the efforts of friendship, or of my own mind have but little effect on a heart wounded as mine is. My daughter was so good, so dutiful, so affectionate, her tastes and sympathies, and amuse- ments were so identical with my own ; she was so interwoven with every plan and prospect of passing the remnant of my days, that I feel that I have sustained a loss which can never be repaired. Henceforth there is nothing in this world but duties." The eldest son, Theodore Wythe, in consequence of an inj ury, became insane, and many years of his life were spent in an asylum at Lexington, where he died in 1870. Thomas Hart Clay, the second son, lived on a farm adjoining u Ashland," and his hospitable home, " Mansfield," was always a happy gathering place. He represented Fayette County in the legis- lature, and was appointed by President Lincoln Minister to Nicaragua, being later transferred to Honduras. He died at "Mansfield," March 18, 1871. James Brown Clay, the third son, was a lawyer of ability, and at one time was the partner of his father. He represented the United States in Portu- gal in 1849 and 1850, having been appointed to the post by President Taylor. After the death of his EARLY YEARS 33 father, "Ashland" became his home. He was a member of Congress for one term just before the Civil War. He died in 1864. The fourth son, Henry, was Lieutenant- Colonel of the Second Kentucky Regiment in the Mexican War and was killed at the battle of Buena Vista in 1847. The youngest son was John Morrison Clay, who became a farmer and his home was a part of " Ash- land." He died in 1887. CHAPTEE II ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE During the session of the Kentucky legislature, in 1798, a law was passed authorizing a convention to propose amendments to the state constitution, and one measure which caused much discussion in public meetings and called for many communica- tions, printed in the Kentucky Gazette, was that con- cerning slavery. The Gazette was the only newspaper published within five hundred miles of Lexington and all dis- cussions of public interest were carried on in its col- umns. In a number of letters signed "Scaevola," Henry Clay earnestly advocated an amendment to the constitution which would set the slaves free. In speeches throughout central Kentucky and in his communications to the press, he urged gradual emancipation, and, though he excited the prejudices of many and failed in his endeavor, he did not cease to defend his views. He was aware that this was a most unpopular measure, " yet, such was the frank- ness and manliness of his nature, and so controlling his convictions as to the evils of slavery, that he did not hesitate to stem the current on that absorbing question.' ' ' He said in a speech made at Frankfort, at the anniversary of the Kentucky Colonization Society, December 17, 1829, in reference to these 1 Mr. Harrison's MS. ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 35 early anti-slavery efforts : " More than thirty years ago an attempt was made, in this commonwealth, to adopt a system of gradual emancipation, similar to that which the illustrious Franklin had mainly contributed to introduce, in 1780, in the state founded by the benevolent Penn. And among the acts of my life, which I look back to with most satisfactiou, is that of my having cooperated with other zealous and intelligent friends to procure the establishment of that system in this state. . . . We were overpowered by numbers, but submitted to the decision of the majority with a grace which the minority in a republic should ever yield to such a decision. ' ' The passage by Congress in 1798 of the Alien and Sedition Laws was strongly resented by the inajoritj' of Kentuckians, and Governor Garrard, in his mes- sage to the legislature, expressed the opinion of the people when he denounced the measures as "un- constitutional and dangerous to public liberty.' ? Meetings were held in all parts of the state to take action against them, and Henry Clay made his first appearance in political life while addressing the people of Lexington in opposition to them. A large crowd had assembled in a grove near the town and, as was customary in political discussions at an earlier day, speakers were at hand on the same platform to present arguments upon both sides of the subject. The first address was made by the distinguished Lexington lawyer, George Nicholas, who denounced the favorite laws of John Adams, so soon destined to ruin his political future and make an end to the old Federal party. When he had 36 HENRY CLAY concluded, the crowd called, " Clay ! Clay!" and the young man mounted the stand. He made a speech which is said to have moved the people as nothing had ever done in the annals of oratory in that neighborhood. The Federalist who followed found it impossible to proceed ; it was difficult in- deed for him to escape from the wrought-up pop- ulace without suffering personal injury. Clay and Nicholas were borne upon the shoulders of the crowd and placed in a carriage, to be drawn amid great cheering through the streets of Lexington. 1 His attitude in opposition to these measures, meant to be so restrictive upon the liberties of the people, marked the beginning of the career which long caused him to be known as the " Great Commoner." In the summer of 1803, while Henry Clay was absent from Lexington visiting the Olympian Springs, then, as now, a fashionable watering-place about forty miles from the city, he was nominated to represent Fayette County in the state legislature. This nomination was made without any solicitation on his part and indeed without his knowledge or consent. He had shown ability as a young lawyer and had also " caught the eye and charmed the ear by the fascination of his manner and the melody of his voice" ; so it was decided by his fellow citizens that he could best represent the county in the House of Representatives. At first there seemed little chance of his election. His opponents had already made great headway in the canvass, having taken every advantage of his absence. Learning that many were determined to support him, Mr. Clay 1 Mallory, Life and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 17. ENTKANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 37 returned home and addressed the people. Elections at that time and for many years after covered three days, and it was not until the evening of the second day that he reached Lexington. He was chosen almost by acclamation, we are told, and never thence- forth was his name presented to the people of Fay- ette County, the " Ashland District, " that they did not give him their votes with the most enthusiastic devotion in an overwhelming majority. One of the causes of his election was his advocacy of the Lexington Insurance Company. This com- pany had been incorporated in 1802 with the object of encouraging the extensive cultivation of such crops as could be shipped down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi, and to insure the boats and their cargoes from loss on those rivers. The question of repeal- ing its charter had been brought forward as an issue of the campaign, and when Mr. Clay became aware of this, he promptly decided to accept the candidacy. After his election he defeated in the legislature the attempt to take away the company's franchises. His opponent in the election was Felix Grundy, a young lawyer about his own age, a man of talent, who, like himself, had gained reputation in the de- fense of criminal causes. In the following year Grundy was elected to the legislature, where he re- vived the effort to repeal the charter of the insur- ance company, having secured during his canvass pledges from other members to vote with him. For two days these brilliant young men discussed the question in the House, and the interest which they created attracted the attention of the Senate, many of whose members were constantly in attendance on 38 HENKY CLAY this debate. Grundy was successful iu the House, but when the measure was presented to the Senate, the decision was reversed, and the company retained its charter. Clay's arguments had prevailed. Felix Grundy was one of the most influential young members of the Lexington bar and it was through his exertions that the circuit court system was established in Kentucky. He removed to Ten- nessee and was a member of Congress from that slate from 1811 to 1815. He was elected United States senator from Tennessee in 1829 and served until 1838, when he became Attorney -General under Van Buren. While the legislature was in session in 1806, an affidavit was filed in the District Court of Kentucky by Joseph Hamilton Daviess, charging Aaron Burr with treasonable designs against the United States, and Mr. Clay soon became involved in the case in an historic manner. He had met Daviess before in an experience which narrowly escaped being a serious ' * affair of honor. ' ' Having bullied and as- saulted a tavern-keeper of Kentucky, Daviess felt affronted when Mr. Clay took up the case in the courts. A challenge to a duel was accepted by Mr. Clay, though by good fortune, through the interpo- sition of friends, the meeting was avoided. For more than a year Daviess had been quietly collect- ing information concerning Burr, who had been in Kentucky pursuing his own plans, and interesting many in them. The sympathies of the people were largely with Burr, whose magnetism was extraordi- nary ; his fascinations seemed to subdue all who came under their spell. He was looked upon as a ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 39 great democratic leader. Daviess was a strong Fed- eralist, a man of marked eccentricity of dress and manner and decidedly unpopular. His admiration of Alexander Hamilton had led him to assume his middle name, and it was generally thought that he was influenced in his prosecution of Burr by a hatred aroused by Hamilton's death, and that t3ie tiling of the affidavit was done more with the pur- pose of harassing the man than in an endeavor to convict him of treason. Kentucky was strongly de- voted to Thomas Jefferson and little sympathy was felt for so decided a Federalist. Henry Clay began his political career as a Jelfer- sonian Democrat and he thought Burr, who now aj)plied to him to act as his counsel, a persecuted man. Clay believed so implicitly in the innocence of the accused that he refused to accept any com- pensation for his services, though Burr had written from Louisville, November 27, 1808: "Informa- tion has this morning been given to me that Mr. Daviess has recommenced his prosecution and in- quiry. I must entreat your professional aid in this business. It would be disagreeable to me to form a new connection, and various considerations will, it is hoped, induce you, even at some personal incon- venience, to acquiesce in my request. I shall, how- ever, insist on making a liberal pecuniary compen- sation. ... I pray you to repair to Frankfort on receipt of this." The case was brought before the Federal court in Frankfort but the most important witness was ab- sent and no indictment was found. Some time later Burr was again arrested in Kentucky and he applied 40 HENRY CLAY to Mr. Clay to defend hi in, asserting in the follow- ing letter, dated Frankfort, December 1, 1806, that he was innocent of any treasonable purposes : "I have no design, nor have I taken any measure to promote a dissolution of the Union, or a separation of any one or more states from the residue. I have neither published a line on the subject, nor has any one through my agency, or with my knowledge. I have no design to intermeddle with the government or to disturb the tranquillity of the United States, or of its territories, or any part of them. I have neither issued, nor signed, nor promised a commis- sion to any person for any purpose. I do not own a musket, nor does any person for me, by my au- thority, or with my knowledge. My views have been fully explained to, and approved by several of the principal officers of government, and, I believe, are well understood by the administration, and seen by it with complacency. They are such as every man of honor and every good citizen must approve. Considering the high station you now fill in our national councils, I have thought these explanations proper, as well to counteract the chimerical tales which malevolent persons have so industriously cir- culated, as to satisfy you that you have not espoused the cause of a man in any way unfriendly to the laws, the government, or the interests of his country." Henry Clay had just been elected by the legisla- ture of Kentucky a United States senator to fill the unexpired term of John Adair, who had resigned, and at first he felt that lie could not comply with such a request ; but he finally yielded, and Burr again went free, the jury having decided that ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 41 the evidence was not sufficient to indict him. Shortly after Mr. Clay's arrival in Washington as a senator, he was shown by President Jefferson a let- ter written in cipher by Burr, which clearly proved the latter' s treasonable designs. To his father-in- law, Colonel Hart, Henry Clay wrote from Wash- ington on February 1, 1807 : '* It seems that we have been much mistaken about Burr. When I left Kentucky I believed him both an innocent and a persecuted man. In the course of my journey to this place, still entertaining that opinion, I expressed myself without reserve, and it seems owing to the freedom of my sentiments at Chillicothe I have exposed myself to the strictures of some anonymous writer at that place. They give me no uneasiness as I am sensible that all my friends and acquaintances know me incapable of entering into the views of Burr. It appears from the Presi- dent's message to Congress, in answer to the reso- lution of the House of Representatives calling for information, that Burr had formed the no less dar- ing projects than to reduce New Orleans, subju- gate Mexico, and divide the Union. The energetic measures taken by the administration have, I pre- sume, entirely defeated him. Dr. Bolleman . and Mr. Swartjzfout, two of his most criminal agents at New Orleans, having been arrested in that city by the military authority, were sent to this place. They have attempted to effect their liberation by a writ of habeas corpus, but after a full investigation of their case they were sent to jail by one of the courts of this district for treason. When they are to be tried has not yet been decided." 42 HENRY CLAY Mr. Clay's enemies made use of the fact that he had been Burr's attorney and charged him with be- ing also Burr's partisan. Many years afterward the story was revived by the Jackson party. On Oc- tober 15, 1828, Clay wrote from Washington to his brother-in-law, Dr. Richard Pindell, of Lexington : "My dear Doctor : 1 ' I observe that some of the Jackson party in Kentucky, for the purpose of withdrawing public attention from the alleged connection betweeu Gen- eral Jackson and Colonel Burr, have gotten up a charge against me of participation in the schemes of the latter. I have not myself thought it necessary to notice this new and groundless accusation, but prompted by the opinions of some of my friends, and actuated also by the desire to vindicate the memory of an inestimable but departed friend, who fell in the military service of his country, I communicate the following statement which you are at liberty to publish. "Public prosecutions were commenced in the Federal court of Kentucky against Colonel Burr, in the fall of 1806. He applied to me, and I engaged as his counsel, in connection with the late Colonel John Allen, to defend him. The prosecutions were conducted by the late Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daviess, a man of genius, but of strong prejudices, who was such an admirer of Colonel Hamilton that after he had attained full age he (Colonel D.) adopted a part of his name as his own. "Both Colonel Allen and myself believed that there was no ground for the prosecutions, and that Colonel Daviess was chiefly moved to institute them by his admiration of Colonel Hamilton, and his hatred of Colonel Burr. Such was our conviction of the innocence of the accused that, when he sent us a considerable fee, we resolved to decline accept- ing it and accordingly returned it. I ENTBANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 43 " We said to each other, Colonel Burr has been an eminent member of the profession, has been At- torney-General of the state of New York, is prose- cuted without cause in a distant state, and we ought not to regard him in the light of an ordinary cul- prit. The first prosecution entirely failed. A sec- ond was shortly afterward instituted. Between the two I was appointed a senator of the United States. In consequence of that relation to the general gov- ernment, Colonel Burr, who still wished me to ap- pear for him, addressed the note to me of which a copy is herewith transmitted. I accordingly again appeared for him, with Colonel Allen, and, when the grand jury returned the bill of indictment not true, a scene was presented in the court-room which I had never before witnessed in Kentucky. There were shouts of applause from an audience, not one of whom, I am persuaded, would have hesitated to level a rifle against Colonel Burr, if he believed that he aimed to dismember the Union, or sought to violate its peace, or overthrow its Constitution. "It is not true that the professional services of either Colonel Allen or myself were volunteered, al- though they were gratuitous. Neither of us were acquainted with any illegal designs whatever of Colo- nel Burr. Both of us were fully convinced of his innocence. A better or braver man, or a more ar- dent and sincere patriot than Colonel John Allen never lived. The disastrous field of Eaisin on which he fell attests his devotion to his country. " The affidavit of a Mr. John Dowling has been procured and published to prove that I advised him to enlist with Colonel Burr, and that I told him that I was going with him myself. There is not one word of truth in it so far as it related to me. The ridiculous tale will be credited by no one who knows both of us. The certificate of some highly respect- able men has been procured as to his character. His affidavit bears date on the third, and the certifi- 44 HENRY CLAY cate, on a detached paper, on the fourth instant. I have no doubt that it was obtained on false preten- ces, and with an entire concealment of its object. I was at the period of the last prosecution preparing to attend the Senate of the United States at the seat of government, many hundred miles in an opposite direction from that in which it afterward appeared Colonel Burr was bound. So far from my having sent any message to Mr. Dowling when I was last in Lexington, I did not then ever dream that the ma- lignity of party spirit could fabricate such a charge as has been since put forth against me. " It is not true that I was at a ball given to Colo- nel Burr in Frankfort. I was at that time in Lexington. It is not true that he ever partook of the hospitality of my house. It was at that time a matter of regret with me that my professional en- gagements, and those connected with my departure for Washington, did not allow me to extend to him the hospitality with which it was always my wont to treat strangers. He never was in my house, accord- ing to my recollection, but once, and that was the night before I started to this city, when, being my- self a stranger in this place, he delivered me some letters of introduction, which I never presented. u On my arrival here, in December, 1806, I be- came satisfied, from a letter in cypher to General Wilkinson, and from other information communi- cated to me by Mr. Jefferson, that Colonel Burr had entertained treasonable designs. At the request of Mr. Jefferson, I delivered to him the original note from Colonel Burr to me, of which a copy is now forwarded, and I presume it is yet among Mr. Jef- tVrson's papers. I was furnished with a copy of it, in the handwriting of Colonel Coles, his private secretary, which is with my papers in Kentucky. " This, my dear doctor, is a true and faithful ac- count of my connection with Colonel Burr." Mr. Clay in 1815, in New York, soon after his re- ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 45 turn from Ghent, met Burr, who approached him with outstretched hand which he declined to accept, and the two men never saw each other again. Years afterward Mr. Clay was appealed to in be- half of Mrs. Blennerhassett, who was old and needy, and he presented to Congress a memorial asking for aid for her, but she died in great poverty before the petition could be acted upon. Henry Clay took his seat in the Senate, December 29, 1806. He still lacked several months of the req- uisite age, but this disability seems not to have oc. curred to him, or to his friends in the Kentucky legislature, by whom he was elected. He was im- mediately appointed to prominent places upon com- mittees. He wrote to his father-in-law : " My re- ception in this place has been equal, nay, superior, to my expectation. I have experienced the civility and attention of all whose acquaintance I was desir- ous of making.' 7 Mr. Clay's first speech in the Senate was in ad- vocacy of a bill to provide for building a bridge across the Potomac, of the need of which after in- vestigation he was convinced. He also advocated the appropriation of land on the Kentucky shore for the construction of a canal at the Falls of the Ohio Eiver, and though the subject of government appropriations for internal improvements was new, a committee, of which he was made chairman, was ap- pointed to consider this proposal. Four days after he took his seat in the Senate, he offered a resolu- tion concerning the circuit court system. In the letter to Colonel Hart, from which quota- tions have already been made, he wrote : "lam 46 HENRY CLAY attempting in Congress several things for the good, as J suppose, of our country. A bill at my instance has passed the Senate to extend to Kentucky and the other Western states the circuit court system of the United States. By this measure, if it passes the other house, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio will have the advantage of two judges upou the Federal bench instead of one, and the circuit judge who presides in those states will also attend the superior bench, and carry with him there a knowledge of the local laws and decisions of those states. I have also proposed a resolution to appropriate a quantity of land to assist in opening a canal at the Falls. I fear the shortness of the session will prevent the success of this measure. ■ 1 In the brief period in which Clay served in the Senate to fill out Adair's unexpired term, from December 29, 1806, to March 4, 1807, he was a most attractive figure, spoken of by a fellow member as " the ardent, eloquent and chivalrous Henry Clay.' ' His thorough self-possession was combined with the utmost grace and dignity, and his ease of manner and sunny nature won for him the enduring affec- 1 ion of his colleagues. Upon the adjournment of Congress Mr. Clay re- turned to Kentucky, soon again to be elected to represent Fayette County in the lower house of the legislature. At the opening of the session he was chosen Speaker. In this service he became the wit- ness of a singular manifestation of the patriotism of the Kentuckians. This patriotism was shown by the hatred of everything British, and induced a motion to prohibit the reading in the courts of the ENTKANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 47 state of any British decision, or any British ele- mentary work on law. Henry Clay left the Speaker' s chair and in one of the greatest intellectual efforts of his life, he showed the fatal consequences which would certainly follow should this motion prevail. The feeling of resent nieiit toward England was still very strong. Among the multitude that feeling was almost universal and many members favored the motion. In the spirit of compromise, Mr. Clay proposed an amendment, that the exclusion of British decisions and legal opinions should extend only to those which had been given since July 4, 1776, as up to that time the laws of Great Britain and of the American Colonies were derived from the same great source. He denounced as barbarous the spirit which would " wantonly make wreck of a system fraught with the intellectual wealth of cen- turies." His impassioned appeal overcame all op- position and the amended resolution was adopted unanimously. Thus at the early age of thirty Henry Clay saved for Kentucky, " that system with which is associated everything valuable and venerable in jurisprudence." His patriotism was shown later on also, when he brought into the legislature a series of resolutions expressing approval of the embargo which had been established by the United States against Great Brit- ain, and denouncing the British Orders in Council. The embargo, approved at an extra session of Con- gress called by Jefferson, in the latter part of 1807, prohibited the departure of any American vessel from any port of the United States and bound to any foreign country, except by special direction of 48 HENRY CLAY the President. This measure had been preceded by a non-importation act passed in 1806, which pro- hibited the introduction into the United States of certain articles of British production. Both of these, however, were but weak, retalia- tory measures induced by the loss which had been occasioned to the United States by the destruction of vessels of her merchant-marine by Great Britain, and by Great Britain's insistence upon the right of search of American vessels for British seamen, and the impressment into her service of such seamen as that nation determined, upon her own judgment, owed allegiance to her government. Provably British men-of-war took from American vessels on the high seas, and even in American waters, a large number of seamen who both by birth and residence were citizens of this country. The British Orders in Council, concerning which so little is known by the ordinary reader of that period of American history, consisted of three measures, the first of which was taken by the Brit- ish government, May 16, 1806, and which declared the whole coast of Europe from the Elbe to Brest, a distance of 800 miles, in a state of blockade. The second Order in Council was issued in January, 1807, and forbade neutrals from engaging in the coasting trade with ports hostile to Great Britain. The third prohibited all neutral trade with France or her allies, except through Great Britain. These famous Orders in Council were replied to by two orders issued by Napoleon, the first from Berlin, on November 21, 1806, declaring the British Islands in a state of blockade, forbidding all correspondence ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 49 or trade with thein, and defining as contraband all English products or manufactures ; the second from Milan on December 17, 1807, decreeing that every vessel which should submit to search by British cruisers, or pay any tax or license to the British government, or be bound to or from any British port should be denationalized and sequestered. 1 In December, 1808, Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in the Kentucky legislature, and the vote upon those measures indicated the unanimity of feeling in Kentucky as to British ag- gressions. These resolutions approved of the em- bargo, denounced the British Orders in Council, pledged the aid of Kentucky in whatever the gen- eral government might determine upon in resisting British exactions, and declared that President Jef- ferson was entitled to the gratitude of the country for the "ability, uprightness, and intelligence which he had displayed in the management both of our foreign relations and domestic concerns." This endorsement of Jefferson was especially ob- jected to by Humphrey Marshall, who was then serving in the legislature. He was an extreme Federalist, a man of strong prejudices, who despised Jefferson as he did Clay. He violently denounced the resolutions, but without effect, as his own was the only vote against their adoption. Another resolution then offered by Clay, recom- mending that the members of the legislature should wear only such clothes as were the product of home manufacture, enraged Marshall beyond endurance. He assailed Clay with the utmost virulence, denoun- 1 Hunt, Life of James Madison. 50 HENRY CLAY ring the resolution as the claptrap of a dema- gogue, to which Clay replied with equal warmth, but in more parliamentary language. This alterca- tion caused Clay to send Marshall a challenge to mortal combat, which was accepted and the duel took place across the Ohio River from Shippings- port, and just below the month of Silver Creek, hid. The account of this duel, written and sub- scribed to by the seconds, who were Colonel James F. Moore for Henry Clay, and Major John B. Campbell for Humphrey Marshall, was published in the Kentucky Gazette of January 31, 1809. Both combatants were slightly wounded when the sec- onds interfered and prevented a continuation of hos- tilities. Mrs. Clay was then at home at " Ashland," the beginnings of which estate Henry Clay had pur- chased in November, 1806, and her sister, Mrs. Price, who resided in Lexington, having heard that Mr. Clay had gone out to fight a duel, went to be with her until news of the result should be ob- tained. Mrs. Clay received her sister without ex- hibiting any excitement, and the two ladies spent the day together, no word of the encounter passing between them. Mrs. Price imagined that Mrs. Clay knew nothing of the meeting and, therefore, did not speak to her about it. In the afternoon a messenger brought a note to Mrs. Clay which she read and at once handed to Mrs. Price, saying, "Thank God, he is only slightly wounded." On reading the note Mrs. Price exclaimed, " Why ! sister, I did not think you knew Mr. Clay had gone out to fight a duel, as you haven't said one word to ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 61 me about it." Such was the self-control of that quiet, horue-loving woman. In after years a son of Humphrey Marshall, Thomas A. Marshall, was a representative in the Federal House of Representatives, still later becom- ing Chief- Justice of Kentucky. He was held in the highest esteem in the state and his nature and char- acter were such as to create and justify the high consideration accorded him. He married a niece of Mrs. Clay, and was one of the two men chosen by Henry Clay as executors of his last will. In the winter of 1809-1810 Clay was again sent to the Senate of the United States to fill another unex- pired term, that of Buckner Thruston, who had re- signed his place while he yet had two years to serve. The first recorded speech of Clay's congressional career was made on April 6, 1810, on domestic manufactures, which he favored then as he had in the legislature of Kentucky two years before, de- veloping his argument, however, in a much more elaborate way. 1 The subject of a protective tariff of which he later became the particular advocate and with which his name, as with the internal improvement policy, is so closely identified, was not directly at issue. An amendment had been made to a bill appropriating money for the purchase of military supplies and it was a question of instructing the Secretary of the Navy to give a preference to hemp, cordage and sail-cloth of domestic manufacture. Clay entered 1 Neither the Annals of Congress nor the newspapers of the time report the speeches of Mr. Clay which he made in the Sen- ate while he was a member of that body in 1806-1807. 62 HENRY CLAY the discussion as au advocate of the industries of Kentucky. He thought that there would soon come a time when we should not want "a pound of Russian hemp." " The Western country alone," he said, "is not only adequate to the supply of whatever of this article is requisite for our own consumption, but is capable of affording a surplus for foreign markets." Commerce was opj)Osing the policy of domestic manufactures. " She is," he remarked, " a flirting, flippant, noisy jade, and if we are governed by her fantasies we shall never put off the muslins of India and the cloths of Europe." He had confidence, however, that "the yeomanry of the country, the true and genuine landlords of this tenement called the United States, disregarding her freaks, will persevere in reform until the whole national family is furnished by itself with the clothing necessary for its own use." Earlier " a gentleman's head could not withstand the influence of solar heat unless covered with a London hat ; his feet could not bear the pebbles or frost unless protected by London shoes ; and the comfort or ornament of his person was only con- sulted when his coat was cut out by the shears of a tailor 'just from London.' " There were pleasure ami pride he thought "in being clad in the pro- ductions of our own families" and with youthful ardor he exclaimed: "Others may prefer the cloths of Leeds and of London, but give me those of Humphreysville." 1 He rapidly made his way as a speaker in the 'Colonel David Humphreys' thriving industrial settlement in Connecticut. ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 53 Senate, and his manner, as well as the subject of his discourses, compelled the attention of his colleagues. He was even afforded an opportunity to develop a foreign policy in connection with President Madi- son's proclamation of October 27, 1810, on the sub- ject of Florida. The disputed question of boundary seemed now to call for some definite settlement. Insurrection and intrigue suggested immediate action and it was boldly begun. Though discovered by Sebas- tian Cabot, Florida was formally taken possession of by Ponce de Leon. It was ceded to England in 1 7o3, by the Treaty of Ryswick, but in 1783 was re- stored to Spain by the Treaty of Paris, to remain in possession of that nation until it was purchased by the United States for $5,000,000 in 1819. The Mississippi River was discovered by the French in 1688, and eleven years afterward a settlement was made by them near the point of discovery. Pos- session was ceded to Spain in 1763 but it was restored to France in 1800, and the country was purchased by Jefferson from Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 by the payment of $15,000,000. The question involved in Madison's proclamation was the boundary line between Florida, then in pos- session of Spain, and the Louisiana Territory, that magnificent domain purchased from Bonaparte. Madison himself had no doubt whatever as to the boundary fixed by the purchase being the line of the Rio Perdido, though Spain asserted that Florida ex- tended west to the Mississippi River. The Spanish demand, if acceded to by the United States, would have given Spain the states of Alabama and Mis- 54 HENRY CLAY sissippi. The President and his friends, quoting from the treaties between France and Spain, called attention to the cessions and retrocessions of the one country to the other, as well as to the cession of the eastern portion, exclusive of New Orleans, to Great Britain in 1762, and the cession of this territory by Great Britain to Spain twenty-one years later. This caused the title of all the Louisiana country, as far east as the Rio Perdido, to revert to France and to be in France's possession when the Louisiana Purchase was made by Jefferson in 1803. It is true that the United States had failed to oc- cupy that portion between the Rio Perdido and New Orleans, commonly called West Florida, and to which Spain made claim, largely, if not wholly, be- cause the Spanish garrisons had not been ejected by the United States. In his proclamation of October 27, 1810, President Madison asserted the claim of the United States to West Florida, and also stated that the reason of the delay in its occupation was not the result of any distrust on the part of this nation as to its title to the country, but simply because of our conciliatory views. He announced, therefore, that possession should be taken of that territory "in the name and behalf of the United States." A bill was then introduced in the Senate on December 18, 1810, providing that the territory of Orleans, one of the two territories into which the Louisiana tract had been divided, " shall be claimed and is hereby declared to extend to the river Perdido," and that the laws in force in the territory of Orleans shall extend over the district in question. The Federalists of the Senate took issue with this ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 65 view. Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, and Outerbridge Horsey of Delaware, denied that the United States had any title to West Florida, and be- came the advocates of Spain in this cause, denouncing the proceeding of President Madison as an act of spoliation upon an unoffending and a helpless power. Henry Clay came forward, championing the ad- ministration in a speech replete with knowledge gained by careful study of the whole question, and with great irony congratulated Mr. Horsey on espousing the part of the foreign nation in the question of territorial title between that nation and his own. So comprehensively, yet concisely, did he expound the position of the United States ; so accurately did he define the cessions and retroces- sions of France, England and Spain concerning Florida and Louisiana, that nothing else seemed to be needed. By a citation of the different actions of the three nations, he clearly demonstrated France's title to all the territory ceded by Napoleon to the United States on the payment of $15,000,000. Horsey, during his speech favoring the preten- sions of Spain to the territory of West Florida, had brought forward, as an additional reason for grant- ing those claims, the displeasure that the proceed- ings taken by the President might create in Great Britain, which was presumed to bean ally of Spain. This allusion to the possible offense that might be given Great Britain by the United States in further- ing her right to the territory she had purchased from France, had not the persuasive influence with the young Republicans of the Senate that Mr. Horsey and a majority of the Federalists of the 66 HENKY CLAY Senate seemed to think it should have. On the contrary, it merely fed their indignation, and Clay, the youngest member of the Senate, but the leader of the party in that body, replied to Mr. Horsey in a speech full of withering scorn. He said : " Is the time never to arrive when we may man- age our own affairs without the fear of insulting his Britannic majesty ? Is the rod of the British power to be forever suspended over our heads? Does Con- gress put an embargo to shelter our rightful com- merce agaiust the piratical depredations committed upon it on the ocean ? We are immediately warned of the indignation of offending England. Is a law of non-intercourse proposed ? The whole navy of the haughty mistress of the seas is made to thunder into our ears. Does the President refuse to continue a correspondence with a minister who violates the decorum belonging to his diplomatic character by giving and repeating a deliberate affront to the whole nation ! We are instantly menaced with the chastisement which English pride will not fail to inflict. Whether we assert our rights by sea, or attempt their maintenance by land, whithersoever we turn ourselves, this phantom incessantly pursues us. Already has it had too much influence on the coun- cils of the nation. Mr. President, I most sincerely desire peace and amity with England ; I even prefer an adjustment of all differences with her before one with any other nation. But if she persists in a de- nial of justice to us, or if she avails herself of the occupation of West Florida to commence war upon us, 1 hope and trust thai all hearts will unite in a bold and vigorous vindication of our rights." j ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 57 AY i tk the greatest irony he continued : ,k Allow me, sir, to express niy admiration at the more than Aristidean justice which, in a question of territorial title between the United states and a foreign nation, induces certain gentlemen to espouse the pretensions of the foreign nation." The conciseness of Clay's statement of historical facts as to the condition which prompted Madison's proclamation, and the bill, the result of that proc- lamation, which was then under debate, so forcibly impressed the Senate that the endorsement of the President's action was no longer in doubt. His speech, and the enthusiasm with which it was re- ceived by the country, confirmed Clay's leadership of the Republicans in Congress and made him the recognized champion of the administration. The Bank of the United States, which was a part of Alexander Hamilton's scheme of national finance, had been granted a charter by Congress in 1791, for a term of twenty years, which would expire in 1811. Henry Clay opposed the renewal of its grant of powers. He had been so instructed by the legisla- ture of Kentucky, and he contended that seven- tenths of the stock was held by British subjects. Foreseeing the crisis with England, now so rapidly approaching, he thought that fact would give her an influence in this country which she might exer- cise to our great disadvantage. Another reason for his opposing the renewal of the charter was a belief that the bank under its first charter had abused its powers and had endeavored to serve the views of the Federalists. It was asserted that instances of its oppression for that purpose had occurred at both 58 HENEY CLAY Philadelphia and Charleston, and while this was denied by the friends of the bank, in his judgment, the charge had been satisfactorily established. He seems to have thought also that the charter of the bank was to some extent extra-constitutional ; that is, that certain powers exercised by the bank were not specifically granted to it, but were wrongly inferred from the charter. The plan for its renewal was defeated in the Senate by the casting of the vote of the Vice-President, and in the House by a ma- jority of only one vote. Henry Clay's arguments against the bank were very powerful, and it may be said that the instruc- tions he received from the legislature of Kentucky to oppose its recharter were but lightly regarded as compared with his own convictions, though his course placed him in an unfortunate position when a few years later, as the great Whig leader, a na- tional bank became one of his leading policies. Per- haps the enthusiasm of youth and his intense loyalty to America, then distinguishing all his utterances and sweeping him and his party on into the War of 1812, will alone serve to explain his attitude toward the bank. He asserted that the Duke of Northum- berland was its principal stockholder. If the Prince of Essling, the Duke of Cadore and other French dignitaries were owners of the bank, he wondered whether the Federalists would be the advocates of its recharter. Then the danger of French influence would resound throughout the nation. The peril of British influence was just as great at this hour, — when the two nations were already on the " very brink of war.' ' CHAPTER III THE WAR OF 1812 At the expiration of the senatorial term for which he had been chosen on the resignation of Buckner Thruston, Mr. Clay returned to Kentucky. So clearly had he exhibited his ability and his influence in the Senate, and so greatly had he impressed his constituency with his intellectual superiority, that upon his refusal to accept the nomination for the Senate, he was elected to the House of Representa- tives by a large majority. A special session of Con- gress had been called to meet on November 4, 1811, and Henry Clay then took his seat as a member of the House. On the same day he was elected Speaker by seventy-five of the 128 votes cast. His opponent was William W. Bibb of Georgia. Clay's election was an unparalleled occurrence in the history of the American Congress. Never hav- ing been a member of the House before, his personal acquaintance with its members must have been very limited, yet they at once recognized his superior fitness for the position, when the country's condition was critical to a high degree. The constant en- deavors made by Presidents Jefferson and Madison to secure just treatment for the United States from both France and Englaud had invariably failed. Neither nation would make any equitable arrange- ment through which the various actions of each, so 60 HENRY CLAY destructive to this country's commerce, would be terminated. On the part of England, her course in the impressment of seamen from American ships even in American waters, claiming as she frequently did the allegiance of native-born citizens, seizing them upon American ships and putting them to service upon her own, and constituting herself the sole judge of their nationality, as well as positively asserting a right so to do, was regarded by the peo- ple of this country as the least tolerable of the wrongs she perpetrated upon them. So thought Henry Clay, and with him were John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes, Langdon Cheves, Felix Grundy and other young " war hawks," all of whom, with burning enthusiasm, resented British aggressions, and de- termined no longer to submit to them. President Madison's message, sent in to Congress on its assem- bling, November 4, 1811, recommended " very de- cisive measures for the vindication of our national honor and the redress of our wrongs. ' ' There were members of Congress, remainders of the old Feder- alist party, representing those elements, the most irreconcilable of which gave expression to their views in the Hartford Convention where they opposed in iota the measures advocated by the President. Clay now spoke in vigorous language in favor of plans to strengthen the army and the navy. He dwelt upon the spirit of American commercial en- terprise which was being curbed by the interferences of Great Britain. It was a matter of importance for the West, no less than for the East. He had heard of a vessel built at Pittsburg, which crossed the At- lantic and entered the harbor of Leghorn. The THE WAR OF 1812 61 master of the vessel laid his papers before the cus- toms officer of the place, to be told that there was no uch port as Pittsburg. The master procured a map of the United States, pointed out the Gulf of Mexico, and then traced his way up the Mississippi more than 1,000 miles, to the mouth of the Ohio, following the line of that river 1,000 miles still higher to the point from which he had begun his voyage. Thus did he voice the enthusiasm of the young West and inject the fillip of a larger, prouder nationality into the sluggish views of the older states. Henry Clay was no defender of Napoleon, but he did protest against the statesmanship of the old Fed- eralists which now and for long had spent its vigor in baiting him and all that was French. He had heard Bonaparte denounced by "every vile and op- probrious epithet our language, copious as it is in terms of vituperation, affords." He had been com- pared to "every hideous monster and beast from that mentioned in the Revelations down to the most insignificant quadruped. ' ' He had been called ' ' the scourger of mankind, the destroyer of Europe, the great robber, the infidel, the modern Attila and Heaven knows by what other names." And he con- tinued : 1 1 Gentlemen appear to me to forget that they stand on American soil, that they are not in the British House of Commons. . . . Gentle- men transform themselves into Burkes, Chathams and Pitts of another country and forgetting, from honest zeal, the interests of America, engage with European sensibility in the discussion of European interests." In stentorian tones he called upon 62 HBNBY (LAY Americans to develop and assert a nationality of their own. The President's message had been referred to a select committee of which Mr. Clay had appointed Peter B. Porter, a member from New York, to be the chairman. Porter made a report to the House, memorable as giving a concise statement of the ac- tions of Great Britain, which were a sufficient reason for the adoption of the most strenuous measures that could be enforced against that nation. In reference to these continued outrages the report said : a To wrongs so daring in character, and so dis- graceful in execution, it is impossible that the peo- ple of the United States should remain indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we must resist by those means which God has placed within our reach. Y'our committee would not cast a slander over the American name by the expression of a doubt which branch of this alternative will be embraced. The occasion is now presented when the national character, misrepresented and traduced for a time, by foreign and domestic enemies, should be vindicated. . . . But we have borne with injury until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. The sovereignty and independence of these states, pur- chased and sanctified by the blood of our fathers, from whom we received them, not for ourselves only, but as the inheritance of our posterity, are deliber- ately and systematically violated. And the period has arrived when, in the opinion of your committee, it is the sacred duty of Congress to call forth the pa- triotism and resources of the country. By the aid of these and with the blessing of God we confidently THE WAR OF 1812 63 trust we shall be enabled to procure that redress which has been sought for by justice, by remon- strance, and forbearance in vain." Shortly after the report of the committee was re- ceived, President Madison in a message to Congress on April 1, 1812, recommended "the immediate passage of an embargo on all vessels then in port, or hereafter arriving, for a period of sixty days." This was at once referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, and a bill, reported by Mr. Porter and referred to the Committee of the Whole, was adopted. In the Senate, however, the period of the embargo was extended to ninety days and the amendment being accepted by the House, the bill became a law on April 4th. This extension of time was due to the Federalists and to some moderate Republicans, who favored it because it gave greater opportunity for the pacific negotiation for which they still hoped, in spite of the constant rebuffs and contemptuous refusals with which England met every effort made by Jefferson and Madison, to ob- tain justice at her hands. In forming the important committees of the House, Clay had purposely put them under the control of the war party, of which he himself was the most conspicuous member. His energy in urging even a larger army and a greater increase of the navy than the President had recommended to meet the crisis, ' ' corresponding with the national spirit and ex- pectations," was irresistible ; and when taunted by the Federalists with the question, " What are we to gain by war?" his reply, made with startling emphasis, was, " What are we not to lose by peace f 64 HENRY CLAY Commerce, character, a nation's best treasure, honor ! " President Madison was nominated for reelection in May, 1812. The act declaring war with Great Britain was passed June 18th, and the next day Madison issued a proclamation declaring that war already existed between Great Britain and the United States. This policy naturally met with violent opposition from the same small number who had fought the embargo, Randolph, Quincy and Pitkin being the leaders and spokesmen of the faction. In his denunciation of the members of the war party, and their vigorous prosecution of war measures, Mr. Quincy, in a memorable speech, sur- passed even " Randolph of Roanoke" in unparlia- mentary language. He coupled with his fierce and unsparing denunciation an attack upon Jefferson, which was as uncalled for as it was unwarranted. Henry Clay displayed his indefatigable zeal in arousing public sentiment. His eloquence in enumerating the wrongs that had been perpetrated by Great Britain upon our seamen, and upon our shipping through the Orders in Council burned. Nothing was left to this country, he asserted, but war or degradation. The war, he said, was declared because Great Britain arrogated to herself the regu- lating of our foreign commerce under the delusive name of retaliatory Orders in Council, because she persisted in impressing American seamen, because she had instigated the Indians to commit hostilities against us, and because she refused indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce. It had been asked — u Why not declare war against France, also, THE WAR OF 1812 65 for the injuries she inflicted upon American com- merce, and the outrageous duplicity of her conduct? ' ' ( 1 1 will concede to gentlemen all they ask about the injustice of France toward this country," he said. "I wish to God that our ability was equal to our disposition to make her feel the sense that we enter- tain of that injustice." Having begun war with Great Britain, however, the United States could not also proceed to war with France, and England's ag- gressions were in every respect greater than those of the other country. Henry Clay declared that, of all England's out- rageous acts, he considered that of the impressment of our seamen into British service as the most serious, exceeding even that of the Orders in Coun- cil. No matter what were the assertions of Great Britain, the actual state of affairs, in regard to her impressing American seamen, was that she came by her press-gangs on board of our vessels and seized our native as well as our naturalized seamen, to drag them into her service. It was wrong, he said, that we should have to prove their nationality ; it was the business of Great Britain to identify her subjects. " The colors that float from the masthead should be the credentials of our seamen." Madison's reelection was ascertained by Congress on February 18th, on counting the vote cast for him as the candidate of the Eepublican party, and that cast for De Witt Clinton, his opponent. On May 24th Henry Clay was again elected Speaker of the House, the candidate in opposition being Mr. Pitkin of Connecticut, who together with Randolph and Quincy voiced the most hostile enmity to the 66 HENKY CLAY embargo and to the proclamation of war. Quincy still spoke with great bitterness, not only for him- self but for his party and section. Clay he found " bold, aspiring, presumptuous, with a rough, over- bearing eloquence, neither exact nor comprehensive, which he had cultivated in the contests with the half-civilized wranglers in the county courts of Ken- tucky, and quickened into confidence and readiness by successful declamations at barbecues and elec- tioneering struggles." ' The proposal to invade Canada with a possible view to its annexation, hinted at by Henry Clay, he denounced as " cruel, wanton, senseless and wicked." The men about him reminded him of " the giant in the legends of infancy, " ' Fee, faw, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Dead or alive I will have some.' " He expressed, he said, "the disgust of all New England." There was mildness indeed in the allu- sion to "very young politicians, their pin feathers not yet grown" in comparison with some remarks of Mr. Quincy as he further developed his discourse. ' ' It is not for a man whose ancestors have been planted in this country now for almost two cen- turies," he said in passion ; " it is not for a man who has a family, and friends, and character, and chil- dren, and a deep stake in the soil ... to hesitate or swerve a hair's breadth from his coun- try's purpose and true interests because of the yelp- ings, the bowlings and snarlings of that hungry 1 Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, p. 255. THE WAR OF 1812 67 pack which corrupt men keep directly or indirectly in pay with the view of hunting down every man who dares develop their purposes — a pack composed, it is true, of some native curs, but for the most part of hounds and spaniels of very recent importation, whose backs are seared by the lash, and whose necks are sore with the collars of their former masters." The cabinet for some time had been composed of u three Virginians and a foreigner" (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Gallatin). Although it was Mr. Clay's li untamed, ferocious tongue " which was detailed to reply to this speech, 1 the New Englander, when the discussion was done, still had a great ad- vantage over his opponent in a reputation for the use of intemperate speech. While he had tongue or pen, Mr. Quincy wrote to his wife, "the ig- norant part of the nation shall not assume to itself with impunity to lord it over the intelligent, nor the vicious over the virtuous." Quincy accused Clay of leading a committee of " war hawks " to wait upon Madison, and to tell him that his endorsement of their policy would be the price of his being the party candidate in 1812. 2 Eandolph, when not denouncing the war and the party favoring it, was also badgering and taunting the Speaker. In a conversation with a friend, about this time, he said of Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, who was a prominent member of the Committee on Foreign Eelations : " They have entered the House 1 Quincy, p. 296. 2 Ibid., p. 259; cf. Hunt, Life of James Madison, p. 316; Henry Adams, Albert Gallatin, p. 456. 68 HENEY CLAY with their eye on the presidency, and mark my words, sir, we shall have war before the end of the session." ' "It was as easy to go to war as to get a wife," said this oftentimes half-mad but very able son of Virginia, " and many a poor blockhead had he seen strutting his hour because he had after vast exertion married a shrew." 2 He insisted that it was an " anti- ministerial war," one not more agree- able to the old Republicans than to the old Federal- ists ; a thing for a new breed of " flaming patriots," now clamoring for ascendency at their country's cost. Having offered a resolution that it was " in- expedient to resort to war with Great Britain," he began at once to debate it, whereupon Clay put the question to the House whether it would proceed to the consideration of the resolution. The House de- clined to do so, and Eandolph then received the first impulse to his intense dislike of Henry Clay^ whose treatment of him in this instance was only such as would have been accorded any other mem- ber. 3 For the first year of the war every possible un- toward happening to the American arms seems to have befallen them. On the 29th of August Gen- eral William Henry Harrison, who had been made a brigadier-general in the American army, wrote the following letter to Henry Clay : ' i Cincinnati, August 29, 1812. " I write to you, my dear sir, amid a thousand interruptions, and I do it solely for the purpose of 1 Garland, Life of Randolph, Vol. I, p. 306. " Annul* of Congress for 1811-1812, p. 713. 'Garland, Life of Randolph, Vol. I, p. 299. THE WAR OF 1812 69 showing you that you are present to my recollec- tion under circumstances that would almost justify a suspension of every private feeling. The rumored disasters upon our northwestern frontier are now ascertained to be correct. The important point of Mackinac was surrendered without an effort ; an army captured at Detroit after receiving three shots from a distant battery of the enemy (and from the range of which it was easy to retire) ; a fort (Chi- cago) in the midst of hostile tribes of Indians, ordered to be evacuated, and the garrison slaugh- tered ; the numerous northwestern tribes of Indians (with the exception of two feeble ones) in arms against us, is the distressing picture which presents itself to view in this part of the country. ' ' To remedy all these misfortunes, I have an army competent in numbers, and in spirit equal to any that Greece or Rome ever boasted of, but desti- tute of artillery, of many necessary equipments, and absolutely ignorant of every military evolution ; nor have I but a single individual capable of assisting me in training them. But I beg you to believe, my dear sir, that this retrospect of my situation, far from producing despondency, produces a contrary effect and I feel confident of being able to surmount them all. "The grounds of this confidence are a reliance on my own zeal and perseverance, and a perfect conviction that no such materials for forming an invincible army ever existed as the volunteers which have marched from Kentucky on the present occasion. . . ." On the next day General Harrison wrote a second letter to Mr. Clay as follows : " Cincinnati, August SO, 1812. "My dear Sir : " After having been absent from home for so many months, you will no doubt think it unreason- 70 HENRY CLAY able that you should be asked to take a considerable journey, and that ou an occasion entirely foreign to yc^ir ordinary public duties. I know you, however, too well not to believe that sacrifices of private con- venience will be always made to render service to your country. Without further preamble then 1 inform you that, in my opinion, your presence on the frontier of this state would be productive of great advantages. I can assure you that your ad- vice and assistance in determining the course of operations for the army (to the command of which 1 have been designated by your recommendation) will be highly useful. You are not only pledged in some manner for my conduct, but for the success of the war. For God's sake, then, come on to Piqua as quickly as possible, and let us endeavor to throw off from the administration that weight of reproach which the late disasters will heap upon them. If you come, bring on McKee with you, whom you will overtake upon the road. An extract from this letter will be authority for the commanding officer of his regiment to let him come." ] Since General Harrison was so anxious for the presence of Henry Clay near the field of action, it is not to be wondered at that President Madison had at one time determined to send the Speaker's name to the Senate for the office of major-general. In the opinion of Albert Gallatin, there was no man so "prompt and fruitful in expedients for an exigency." It is said that Mr. Madison was dis- suaded from his purpose only by the statement of the fact that there was no one who could fill his place in the national councils, a statement which no thoughtful mind would have tried to controvert. Henry Clay was the impelling spirit of the war with 1 Private Correspondence of Henri/ Clay, pp. 20-22. THE WAR OF 1812 71 Great Britain. The country at large, barring an element in New England, was strongly in its favor, knowing that for years our government had made^ every endeavor to effect an amicable arrangement of the differences, that all such attempts had been treated with scorn, and then contemptuously re- jected, and that the indignity of the Orders in Council, as well as the impressment into foreign service of American seamen, was continued in full force against our country. A vast majority of the people of the United States felt, therefore, that a settlement by negotiation was absolutely futile. While it was true that the Orders in Council had been revoked at about the time of the declaration of war, it was equally true that the revocation of those orders was not made because of American protests. Anyhow, there remained the impressment of our seamen, and the unpaid claim for the loss of our shipping, the latter no small sum, when it is con- sidered that more than nine hundred American ships had been destroyed by England during her war with Napoleon, while she most arbitrarily im- posed certain restrictive laws against neutral pow- ers, and carried her dictum into effect. Henry Clay's impassioned appeals to his country- men, his logical recital and clear presentation of the facts of England's transgressions upon American rights, especially in the matter of the impressment of American seamen, which he considered the most flagrant of her self- authorized acts against this na- tion, had a wide-spread influence. They exerted a powerful effect in Congress, where they were de- livered, and thrilled the people of the West and 72 HENRY CLAY South, inspiring a patriotic ardor against which the opposition of Quincy, Randolph and Pitkin had but a local effect, though it may be noted that the governors of Massachusetts and Connecti- cut refused to allow the militia to leave their states, in pursuance of a requisition made by the President under the authority of an act of Congress, alleging the requisition to be unconstitutional. Henry Clay was the most strenuous advocate of his party for preparation for war with Great Britain, and that war was the war of the young members of Congress. They even found it necessary to go to President Madison and urge and persuade him to act with greater promptness ; he must, said they, relinquish all expectation of securing peace through negotiation. The Speaker's chair, with the authority of that position in Congress, was largely delegated to an- other, while Clay with untiring energy was pleading for action, and justifying every move made toward that end. He determined that the aggressions of Great Britain should cease ; that American com- merce should no longer be restrained by Great Britain ; and that merely the proclamation of that country that certain ports of France, with which power she was at war, were closed against neutral nations, gave her the right to destroy American shipping for the infraction of this prohibition, which rested on her proclamation alone, should no longer be tolerated by the United States. Clay held that no abridgment of the free trade of the United States with other nations should be per- mitted to be exercised by Great Britain ; that THE WAR OF 1812 73 this country should uo longer submit to the im- pressment of our seameu by Great Britain, her claim to do which he said was "the assertion of an erroneous principle, and of a practice not con- formable to the asserted principle, a principle which if it were theoretically right must be forever prac- tically wrong, a practice which can obtain counte- nance from no principle whatever, and to submit to which, on our part, would betray the most abject degradation." We are told, said he, "that Eng- land is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining to wait for danger, meets it half-way. Haughty as she is, we once triumphed over her, and if we do not listen to the counsels of timidity and despair, we shall again prevail. In such a cause, with the aid of Providence, we must come out crowned with success ; but if we fail, let us fail like men, lash our- selves to our gallant tars, and expire together in one common struggle, fighting for free trade and sea- men's rights." Always restively active in matters in which he was interested, Henry Clay was particularly so dur- ing the year 1813. In one way or another he was furthering the war with all the enthusiasm of his patriotic nature, an enthusiasm which the dis. asters to American arms had no effect in diminish- ing. Men like Randolph and Quincy were left at home by their constituents as the military ardor swept the country and put them out of sympathy with the popular cause. They now had the time to write letters to each other and to congratulate themselves that they were no longer "under the abject do- 74 HENRY CLAY minion of Mr. H. Clay & Co." ' Mr. Clay's com- mand of the political situation was quite absolute, and he had won it fairly at the early age of thirty - nve, by his gifts of public speech and by his reason- ing faculties which had been so skilfully and indus- triously employed in behalf of a movement calcu- lated to win the applause of the great mass of the people. Because of the unfortunate course of affairs in the field, however, and the determined opposition of New England, President Madison and his advisers were quite willing to listen to the Czar of Russia's suggestion of peace when it came, through his minister at Washington, early in 1813. Albert Gallatin, who could no longer make himself useful in the Treasury Department, and Senator James A. Bayard, an excellent old Federalist of Delaware, were asked to join John Quincy Adams, our Minister to Russia at St. Petersburg, and await developments. So eager had the President been to set his envoys about their task that he had not thought to get from Great Britain an expression of her views. It was soon learned that mediation was not desired by her, and that the Russian emperor's interposition was quite gratuitous. Nevertheless, she expressed a willingness to discuss the terms of a possible peace at a city of her own selection, preferably London or Gotten burg, in Sweden, though the place of meeting was later changed to Ghent, in the Netherlands. When these facts became known to President Madison, he added to the commission the names of 1 Randolph to Quincy, June 20, 1813. Quincy 's Life, p. 332. THE WAR OF 1812 75 Jonathan Eussell, then the American Minister to Sweden, and Henry Clay, making it a body of five members. \ ^ Clay resigned the speakership on January 14, 1814, and set off to join his colleagues. Great Britain's envoys, three in number, kept the Ameri- cans waiting for about a month, but at the end of that time all were upon the scene. The negotia- tions began in August. Mr. Clay continued to represent in diplomacy the policies which had engaged his attention as a leader in Congress, and in much the same manner. If we may judge from John Quincy Adams's journal, he was still the leader of young America, full of the bounding spirit of the West. Enthusiastically national, rather im- patient of diplomatic restraints, belligerent in the face of contradiction, he was a factor of the greatest importance in the councils of the commission. He was the fighting antithesis of John Quincy Adams, steeped in the Puritan traditions of New England, confident in his learning and tenacious of the nice- ties of speech and behavior to which he had been bred. The able Gallatin was the peacemaker, soothing and allaying their differences when they seemed so great as almost to preclude reconciliation. Mr. Adams found in the young Kentuckian a " harsh, angry and overbearing tone." "It al- wavs offends me in him," Mr. Adams wrote in his diary one day, in December, 1814, though he thought that being sometimes not free from this himself he should excuse it, " as the involuntary ef- fusion of a too positive temper." l Clay vigorously 1 Memoirs, Vol. Ill, p. 103. 76 HENRY CLAY defended the Western, which was the larger Ameri- can view of the war, and set forth what his sec- tion was to gain by the treaty. The very surprising demands of Great Britain that peace should be con- cluded by the grant of a large territory south of the Great Lakes, to be occupied by the Indians under British guaranty ; the relinquishment of the right of the United States to keep armed vessels on the Lakes ; the cession of a strip of Maine, over which to construct a road from Halifax to Quebec ; and the renewal of the English right to navigate the Mississippi, which had been enjoyed before 1783, were not acceptable to any commissioner. When, however, it was a question of which particular pro- visions should be accepted by way of compromise, there was a great contest between Massachusetts and Kentucky, between the East and the West. The proposal to introduce an article giving the United States the right to fish and cure fish in British juris- diction as a quid pro quo for the right to navigate the Mississippi at once aroused the lion in Clay. The fisheries were no return for such a privilege, he declared with stirring emphasis. He always "lost his temper," says Mr. Adams, when this subject was discussed. It was argued in vain that any surrender of fish- ing rights, or of the territory of Maine, " would give a handle to the party there, now pushing for a separation from the Union and for a New Eng- land confederacy." Clay retorted that " there was no use in trying to conciliate people who would not be conciliated. There might at some future day be a party for separation in the Western states also. THE WAR OF 1812 77 The government too often sacrificed the interests of its best friends for those of its bitterest enemies." ' Mr. Clay declared that " he would do nothing to satisfy disaffection and treason ; he would not yield anything for the sake of them. ' ' 2 When the com- missioners had under discussion an article giving the British the right to trade with the Indians, he walked up and down the room, repeating five or six times, "I will never sign a treaty upon the status ante beUum with the Indian article, so help me God.' 7 ;i Thus did the discussions of the commis- sioners proceed with a good deal of the rough and tumble of a legislative chamber, Gallatin now and again bringing "all to unison by a joke." 4 1 Memoirs, Vol. Ill, p. 72. 8 Ibid., p. 101. 3 Ibid., p. 103. 4 Something concerning the relations subsisting between the commissioners may be gleaned from these words which are con- tained in a long letter written by Jonathan Russell to Mr. Clay from Stockholm on October 15, 1815 : " If the individual thus sought [John Quincy Adams] should be a kind of laborious pedant without judgment enough to be useful, or taste sufficient to be admired ; who is suspected of forgetting his country in the pursuit of little personal or family interests ; and who is known frequently to forget himself in a paroxysm of unmanageable passion ; who had had the virtue to mask his participation in the resentments of his father under the affectation of patriotism ; and the patriotism to desert his party when it had lost its power ; who adopts the most extravagant opinions in the hectic of the moment and defends them with obstinacy and vehemence while the fever lasts and thus reduces himself to the miserable alternative of being constantly absurd or ridiculously inconsistent ; who has neither dignity to com- mand nor address to persuade and is therefore as unqualified to rule others as he is to govern himself ; who believes the national prosperity to consist in the prosperity of a district and circum- scribes his love of country within the confines of the state in which he was born; who would barter the patriotic blood of the West for blubber and exchange ultra-Alleghany scalps for cod- fish," etc., etc. 78 HENRY CLAY Finally, the day before Christmas, 1814, an agree- ment with the British representatives was reached and the peace was concluded. It was not on terms very heroic for the United States. Nothing was said in the treaty about the right of search, the im- pressment of sailors and the freedom of international commerce. "Free Trade and Seamen's Eights," for which the war had been begun and waged, were quietly passed over. The country's gain had not been as great as many, and Mr. Clay preeminently, had desired ; but he had the joy of knowing that he had had a hand in bringing to naught the pre- posterous demands with which Great Britain had begun the negotiations. Whatever real disappoint- ment was felt because of the result was assuaged by Jackson's impressive victory at New Orleans, in a battle fought, it is true, after *peace had been signed, though before the news of it had reached America. Mr. Clay, after completing his tasks at Ghent, was instructed to visit London with Adams and Gallatin to see if the work just ended could not be supplemented by a treaty of commerce. He was loath to do so, and lingered for a time in Paris. After he learned of the victory at New Orleans, he exclaimed, "Now I can go to England without mortification, " and he crossed the Channel. Noth- ing of material benefit to the United States, however, was obtained by negotiations covering three months' time. He reached home in September, 1815, after an absence of about eighteen months, and possibly barring the triumphant Jackson, found himself the hero of the war. Upon stepping ashore in New THE WAR OF 1812 79 York, he was dined by a distinguished company of citizens, and his progress to Lexington was a series of ovations. On October 7th, he was the guest at a public dinner in his own little city in Kentucky. His friends gathered to honor him. Toasts were proposed to — ' ' Our negotiators at Ghent : their talents have kept pace with the valor of our arms, in demon- strating to the enemy that these states will be free." " Our guest, Henry Clay : we welcome his return to that country whose rights and interests he has so ably maintained at home and abroad." One of his florid biographers asserts that his re- ception in Kentucky was "like that of a dutiful and affectionate son in the long and passionate embrace of a beloved mother. ' ' ' His speech to his admirers, it may be objected, was still that of a jingo, but he had the facts on his side. There had been tremendous gain in the strengthening of a national sense at home, and the enforcement of respect for the republic abroad. Great Britain had never quite relinquished her hope of regaining the territory she had lost on this continent by the Revolution. As late as 1860, she still regarded the country as a loose union of contentious states of a highly primitive nature. Mr. Clay spoke truly at Lexington : " Abroad our character, which at the time of its [the war's] declaration was in the lowest state of degradation, is raised to the highest point of eleva- tion. It is impossible for any American to visit Europe without being sensible of this agreeable change, in the personal attentions which he receives, 1 Mallory, Vol. I, pp. 86-87. 80 HENRY CLAY in the praises which are bestowed on our past exertions, and the predictions which are made as to our future prospects. At home a government, which, at its formation, was apprehended by its best friends, and pronounced by its enemies to be in- capable of standing the shock, is found to answer all the purposes of its institution. . . . Our prospects for the future are of the brightest kind." Thus was the way prepared for Clay immediately to enter that course of public life, for the enrichment and aggrandizement of the country by a vigorous domestic policy with which he became so promi- nently identified during the ensuing thirty years. Old leaders and old parties left the stage ; Clay, Webster, Calhoun and Benton came on. CHAPTER IV CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES That Mr. Clay now had his eyes set upon the presidency has been assumed by his principal biog- raphers. 1 Indeed, it was constantly said of him during his lifetime that his ambitions warped his views and shaped his policies. It has been re- marked, with very great truth, that characteristics in Clay, fancied or real, would always be brought forward to his disadvantage, while similar traits in others did not occasion even p ssing comment. 2 According to the American theory of government, 1 Compare Schurz, for instance. 2 " It has been objected to Henry Clay that'he was ambitious. So he was. But in him ambition was a virtue. It sought only the proper, fair objects of honorable ambition, and it sought these by honorable means only — by so serving the country as to deserve its favors, and its honors. If he sought office, it was for the purpose of enabling him by the power it would give to serve his country more effectually and preeminently, and, if he expected and desired thereby to advance his own fame, who will say that it was a fault ? Who will say that it was a fault to seek and desire office for any of the personal gratifications it may afford, so long as those gratifications are made subordinate to the public good ? "That Henry Clay's object in desiring office was to serve his country, and that he would have made all other objects subservient, I have no doubt. I knew him well. I had full opportunity of observing him, his most unguarded moments and conversations, and 1 can say that I have never known a more unselfish, a more faithful and intrepid representative of the people, of the people's rights, and the people's interests, than Henry Clay." — From Address on the Life and Death of Henry Clay, by John J. Crittenden. 82 HENRY CLAY it is a laudable desire for a man to entertain a wish to be President. It was formerly a more familiar ambition than in these days, and each male child was encouraged in the thought that he might at some future day sit in the White House. Clay ' s interests and talents, the appreciation that he merited and received and the great prominence which he attained naturally led him to hope, and indeed expect, that he might at length be the choice of the nation for a post many times occupied during his life by men vastly inferior to him in every essential particular. Quite plainly one of these was James Monroe, who came to the office in succession to James Madison, and whose Secretary of State Mr. Clay may have thought that he should have been upon his return from Ghent. Madison had asked him to take the Russian mission and then to become Secretary of War. Monroe repeated the offer of the War port- folio and the mission to England, but chose as his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, thus in so far as tradition and precedent could avail indicating Mr. Adams for the successorship in the presidential office. The step from the State Department to the White House was regularly taken in this period of the country's history. Mr. Adams, in point of accomplishments and ex- perience, was rather clearly marked out for this dis- tinction, and it is by no means fair to suppose that Mr. Clay's future course in opposition to several ad- ministration policies was prompted by any personal chagrin. It is natural to think that he preferred the "give and take" and the jostle of a legislative body where his preeminent powers as an orator CONSTBUCTIVE POLICIES 83 caused him to shine before the world. His position as Speaker of the House, to which he was returned in December, 1815, his friends and neighbors in Kentucky having immediately reelected him to Congress, was one of great influence and he could have found very little in the cabinet or a foreign mis- sion to compensate for the enjoyment which came to him from active part in parliamentary life. The Eepublican majorities in both branches of Congress were overwhelming. The Federalists had been almost obliterated by their unpopular policy in combating the war, and it was the task of Clay, with other young men, to prepare the way for a realignment of parties. It is very likely true that he did not have the philosophical backgrounds for a work of this kind, and to say that his course was not always a consistent one is easy. Nevertheless, he rapidly formulated his views and was soon in a fair way either to reform the Eepublican party upon lines of his own making, or to constitute himself the leader of a new party. With Jackson coming for- ward as the heir to Kepublicanism, which soon as- sumed the more popular name of Democracy, it was his destiny to take the alternative course and assist at the birth of the Whig party, which became the natural inheritor of the loose-constructionist view of the Constitution. His constructive policies in re- gard to the upbuilding of native industries, the de- velopment of our internal resources by the making of roads and canals and through other means, his pleas for the national defense, marked him as a man who held the nation above the state and the sense above the letter of the Constitution. He hewed his 84 HENKY CLAY way with marked determination, and with few lapses in that virtue, so highly esteemed in political life, consistency. His imagination, which led him to picture glowing scenes, the fine periods which he could so well use in the description of them to others, effectually marked him for the constructive side in j)olitics and until the end this was his course, inter- rupted as it was only by his famous services em- ployed again and again in pacifying the sections in the slavery dispute, growing more ominous year by year. Now that the war was at an end, it would have been truly Jeffersonian, if he had still been a fol- lower of the leader whom he acknowledged when he began his political life, to have been an advocate of a reduction of taxation. This he could not be. He had visions of a greater nation and he wished it to be defended against future wars. Not only would he maintain the present augmented naval and land forces, but he would still further increase them. He favored the construction of military roads and canals and steam batteries for the Mississippi and the Chesapeake. "In short," said he, " I would act seriously, effectually act, on the principle that in peace we ought to prepare for war." But this was only a part of what he wished the government to be. It must undertake "the great work too long delayed of internal improvement," which was to include "a chain of turnpike roads and canals from Passamaquoddy to New Orleans." He also announced a policy which would "effec- tually protect our manufactories,' ' and " not so much for the sake of the manufacturers themselves, as for CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 85 the general interest." "Let us now do something to ameliorate the internal condition of the country/' said he to his friends in the House. " Let us show that objects of domestic no less than of foreign policy, receive our attention." 1 These policies were supplemented by another, the establishment of a national bank, to put to rights the disordered currency system, and to make the government an efficient agency in the important work of internal upbuilding, which Mr. Clay so el- oquently advocated. It is true, and much was made of this by his foes, that, while a member of the Sen- ate in 1811, he had opposed the renewal of the bank's charter, largely it would seem because he believed it to be a foreign corporation ; i. e. } a corporation whose stock was principally owned abroad. It stood in the way of his plans for the War of 1812. On the constitutional issue he had been wrong on that occasion rather than now, because a bank fitted perfectly into his system of politics. He had the wisdom to see this and the courage to announce a change of his attitude on the question. "He pre- ferred to the suggestions of the pride of consistency (he evident interests of the community, and deter- mined to throw himself upon their candor and jus- tice." 2 Little weight need be given to the consideration that in 1811 the legislature of Kentucky had directed him to oppose the bank, while in 1816 the popular sentiment of his state seemed to favor it. Possibly in 1811 this fact may have had its influence with 1 Colton, Life, Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. V, pp. 98-99, */&;<*., p. 79. 86 HENEY CLAY him, since he was then a young man. Now he was a leader who was well above the need of receiving instructions from any local source. The plain truth seems to be that Mr. Clay was now his natural self, and when he fully understood the part which one of his type of mind was to play in our politics, he deviated very slightly from the indicated way. His changes were as nothing compared, for example, with Webster's on the tariff question and on the 7th of March, 1850, and those which altered the entire complexion of John C. Calhoun as a public man. l The session resulted in a charter being granted for twenty years to the Second Bank of the United States, which served its useful purposes to the nation until the period expired, when, arousing all the ele- mental ire of Jackson, it was swept away. The protective tariff and the internal improvement features of the Young Republican programme were developed with the same rapidity and with practi- cally little opposition. George M. Dallas of Penn- sylvania, the Secretary of the Treasury, voicing the industrial ambitions of his state, proposed a scheme of duties, which in all its substantial parts became the Tariff Law of 1816. Clay, Calhoun and their friends quoted the arguments of Hamilton on the subject of protection against the Federalists, who were now so far out of accord with their own his- tory that they were opposing the policy. No other definite plan presenting itself on the subject of internal improvements, Clay took up the advocacy of a bill to set apart the proceeds of the United States' connection with the national bank as Bolton. Vol. V, p. 108; Huiit, Calhoun, pp. 318-320. CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 87 a fund for the construction of roads and canals, and the improvement of navigation on internal water- courses. This sum would include the bonus paid to the government by the bank as the price of its ex- istence, and the dividends on the shares held by the United States. The measure was justified on con- stitutional grounds because it would forward inter- state commerce, and facilitate the common defense. In his speech on February 4, 1817, Clay said he had " long thought" that there were " no two subjects which could engage the attention of the national legislature more worthy of its deliberate consider- ation, than those of internal improvements and do- mestic manufactures." He now had in mind the improvement of navigation at the rapids in the Ohio River, a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and a turnpike road to parallel the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. He was delighted to know of the early prospect of the completion of a good highway for wagons between Baltimore and the Ohio, and the consequent reduction of time con- sumed in the journey from eight to three days. Similar benefits would follow wherever this " spe- cies of improvement" should be effected. As to the constitutionality of the course, it need not be pressed at this time. The fund could be created, and when it had accumulated, if in the view of Congress its expenditure were adjudged the part of wisdom in the light of constitutional considerations, that policy might be pursued. The old Virginians, however, representing the strict constructionist view of the government inherited from the eighteenth century, wholly distrusted the advice of the younger 88 HEXKY CLAY Republicans on this subject, and Madison vetoed the bill, the last act of his official career. 1 Monroe made no concealment of his hostility to a similar measure, if it should be offered in Congress, and his first message contained a denial of any such constitutional right. To a man like Clay a state- ment of this kind was a challenge, and he had noth- ing to surrender on the point so long as he lived. Reelected to the speakership, he still was able in Committee of the Whole to develop his ideas fully and eloquently. On March 13, 1818, he spoke at much length upon a measure essentially the same as that which had been vetoed by President Madison. This was thought to be the best speech which Clay had made up to that time, and it marked him as an able expounder of constitutional questions, a field into which he had not yet very far proceeded. He now boldly took issue with Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and those theories which they represented in the President's office for twenty-four years. He u utterly despaired'' of any amendment to the Constitution which these three Executives, one after another, had recommended to the advocates of internal improvements. As for himself, he believed the power already to rest with Congress. Its ex- istence he held " as of the first importance, not merely to the preservation of the Union of the States, paramount as that consideration ever should be over all others, but to the prosperity of every great in- terest of the country — agriculture, manufactures, commerce, in peace and in war." The power to make roads and canals was needed, l Hunt, Madison, p. 360. CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 89 said Clay, " to distribute the intelligence, force and production of the country through all its parts." This was the declaration of a statesman of imagina- tion who had ideals for the nation above those to be obtained from any literal reading of the words and phrases of the Constitution. He plainly said that no maker of constitutions could " foresee and pro- vide specifically for all contingencies." " Man and his language," he continued, " are both imperfect. Hence the existence of construction and constructive powers. Hence, also, the rule that a grant of the end is a grant of the means. If you amend the Constitution a thousand times, the same imperfec- tion of our nature and our language will attend our new works." In discussing the theory of state rights, as it was held in Virginia, and as it had more lately revealed itself in Massachusetts, in reference to the War of 1812, Mr. Clay said : "Kb man deprecates more than I do the idea of consolidation ; yet between separation and consolidation, painful as would be the alternative, I would greatly prefer the latter. 9 i Always exhibiting in his speeches a profitable read- ing of ancient history, he referred to the value of military roads to "those great masters of the world," the Romans, who thus sustained their power for so many centuries, " diffusing law and liberty and in- telligence all arouud them." He thought that if there were "no other monument remaining of the sagacity and of the illustrious deeds of the unfortu- nate captive of St. Helena, that the road from Hamburg to Basle would perpetuate his memory to future ages." Concluding, Mr. Clay said : "Of 90 HENKY CLAY all the modes in which a government can employ its surplus revenue, none is more permanently beneficial than that of internal improvement. Fixed to the soil, it becomes a desirable part of the laud itself, diffusing comfort, and activity, and ani- mation on all sides. " This speech was an excellent evidence of Clay's oratory at this fruitful period in his leadership. It was "this enthusiastic concep- tion of national grandeur, this lofty unionism, con- stantly appearing as the inspiration of his public conduct," as Mr. Schurz says, which "gave to his policies, as they stood forth in the glow of his elo- quence, a peculiarly potent charm." While to some it may have seemed a daring thing for Mr. Clay to express himself in such a sense, in opposition to the teachings of men who had sat in the constitutional convention, and pro- jected its wisdom into the new century, he was not deterred by any such considerations. Mr. Schurz finds in the young Kentuckian's criticism of Monroe a discreditable personal motive. Mr. Clay was quite justified in stating a difference of opinion with the President, if he felt it to be of advantage to the discussion. Undoubtedly Mr. Monroe him- self was very much disturbed by Mr. Clay's hos- tility, since he had made every effort to conciliate the powerful Speaker of the House. The Presi- dent's porter was instructed to admit Mr. Clay at all times, even when the cabinet was in session, and ouce (prior to November 23, 1817) when he had de- clined the servant's invitation, Mr. Monroe came out in person, and brought him into the council. 1 Secre- 1 Mrs. Smith, First For/// Years of Washington Society, p. 141. CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 91 tary of State Adams also took umbrage at Mr. Clay's conduct, seeiug in it intrigue with reference to the presidency at the next election, supposed to be assured to him. 1 In still another way did Clay appear to Monroe to be a gadfly upon his flank, and this was in connec- tion with the government's policy in South America. There, is little doubt that Clay's course in this mat- ter was bred of sincere, though somewhat youth- fully enthusiastic sympathy for the Spanish Ameri- can peoples. As he gave rein to his imagination he rose to heights of declamation which seem not to have been warranted by all the facts. It was, how- ever, a policy suggested by a liberal heart and, knowing his character, we cannot very well conceive of his being silent on this subject. Incidentally, it was an excellent opportunity for the display of his eloquence, and serves to entrench him in his position as one of the great orators of the age. He had said in the West Florida speech in the Senate in 1810, ' ' I have no commiseration for princes j my sympathies are reserved for the great mass of man- kind ; " and now he burst out in a flood of impas- sioned eloquence, in behalf of the American subjects of Spain, struggling for their independence. The wars had been in progress for several years. They were waged tediously with many of those horrors, reports of which led to the awakening of our sympathies in regard to the Cubans eighty years later. The leaders of the insurgents were inspired by the example of the people of the United States in gaining their independence of the overlordship of 1 Mejnoirs, Vol. IV, pp. 64, 66. 92 HENRY CLAY Europe. The proposal which Clay now advocated was recognition by the American government of the so-called United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, to which he wished us to dispatch a minister. Com- missioners had been sent to South America to in- vestigate the condition of affairs, and the adminis- tration was not unmindful of the situation in that part of the globe and of the obligations of the United States toward neighboring peoples who were strain- ing every nerve to gain their liberties. The speech which Clay delivered on this subject on March 24, 1818, to use his biographer Colton's words, "came down with tremendous effect" on the House of Representatives, on the country at large, on the Spanish Provinces, on Spain herself, and on all Europe. " It was republican America from Cape Horn to Hudson's Bay against monarchical Europe from the Mediterranean to Finland, that suddenly started up before the surprised imaginations of men." ' Clay had had war in view when he had formulated his policies upon his return from the mission to Ghent. He would not foment or urge it, but he wished the nation so to strengthen itself that it could at all times upon all subjects pursue a course of righteousness, undeterred by considerations af- fecting the conduct of other powers as a result of this course. He now stated his aversion to war with Spain, although she had given "abundant and just cause." He had seen enough of it and nothing could make him think that it was else than a "dreadful scourge." Nevertheless, he had views 1 Vol. V, p. 137. CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 93 which ho was bound to express, and the govern- ment had duties which it was obliged to perform. " In the establishment of the independence of Spanish x^.nierica," he said, "the United States have the deepest interest. I have no hesitation in asserting iny firm belief that there is no question in the foreign policy of this country which has ever arisen, or which I can conceive as ever occurring in the decision of which we have had, or can have so much at stake. This interest concerns our politics, our commerce, our navigation. There cannot be a doubt that Spanish America once independent, whatever may be the form of the governments es- tablished in the several parts, these governments will be animated by an American feeling and guided by an American policy." He adverted to the charge that the people were too ignorant and too superstitious to admit of the existence of free government. " I deny the alleged fact of ignorance," said he. "I deny the inference from that fact, if it were true, that they want capacity for free government ; and I refuse assent to the further conclusion, if the fact were true, that we are to be indifferent to their fate." He scorned the view of those who said that in the independence of Spanish America we should meet a great rival in agricultural productions. "There is something so narrow, and selfish, and groveling in this argument if founded in fact, ' ' said he, ' ' something so unworthy the magnanimity of a great and generous people that I confess I have scarcely patience to notice it." "We are," the orator continued, "the natural head of the American family. I would not inter- 94 HENRY CLAY meddle in the affairs of Europe. We wisely keep aloof from their broils. I would not even inter- meddle in those of other parts of America, further than to exert the incontestable rights appertaining to us as a free, sovereign and independent power ; and I contend that the accrediting of a minister from the new republic is such a right. We are bound to receive their minister, if we mean to be really neutral. If the royal belligerent is repre- sented and heard at our government, the republican belligerent ought also to be heard." Four days later, on March 28th, Mr. Clay again entered the discussion with a speech which was in- deed but in continuation of the first one. He dwelt upon our own Revolutionary history and sought to bring South America's condition home to the sym- pathies of his hearers. He spoke of his old tutor, Chancellor Wythe, and appealed to the patriots of ' 76 before him. Many portions of the speech were steeped in irony, of which few men were in fuller command. He had heard of a proposal to send a minister to Constantinople. It was an opportunity for him to say : i { Yes, sir, from Constantinople or from the Brazils j from Turk or Christian ; from black or white ; from the Bey of Algiers or the Bey of Tunis ; from the devil himself, if he wore a crown, we should receive a minister. We even paid the expenses of the minister of his sublime highness, the Bey of Tunis, and thought ourselves highly hon- ored by the visit. But let the minister come from a poor republic, like that of La Plata, and we turn our back on him. The brilliaut costumes of the ministers of the royal governments are seen glisten- CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 95 ing in the circles of our drawing-rooms and their splendid equipages rolling through the avenues of the metropolis ; but the unaccredited minister of the republic if he visit our President, or Secretary of State at all, must do it iDcognito, lest the eye of Don Onis [the Spanish minister] should be offended by so unseemly a sight.' ' Ministers had been exchanged with the Brazils. ' ' The one, however, is a kingdom, the other a re- public ; and if any gentleman can assign any other better reason why a minister should be sent to one and not to the other of these powers, I shall be glad to hear it disclosed, for I have not been able myself to discover it." "All the patriots ask," said he, " all they want at our hands, is to be recognized as, what they have been for the last eight years, an in- dependent power." Mr. Clay's amendment was lost in the House by a vote of 115 to 45, but he did not abandon the cause of the South Americans, who were translating his speeches into Spanish, reading them to their armies, incorporating his name in their patriotic songs, voting him their thanks and in other ways sending him evidences of their gratitude for the aid which he sought to give them in their extremity. 1 He was now confirmed in his title as the "Great Commoner," a name which clung to him through 1 In 1827 General Bolivar wrote to Henry Clay, thanking him for his brilliant services in behalf of the Sonth Americans, and about a year later Clay replied to the letter. Meantime he had had reason to doubt the motives of Bolivar which had once seemed so pure. He spoke of the " ambitious designs " of the Colombian leader which had caused him "great solicitude" and suggested to him that he prefer " the true glory of our im- mortal Washington." Mallory, Vol. I, pp. 99-100. 96 HEXKY CLAY life, the friend of poor, struggling humanity at home and abroad. In the next Congress he again brought up the question of recognizing the South Americans. By this time the frame of the public mind had im- proved. Mr. Monroe and Mr. Adams seemed to be more favorable to action, and in 1820 Mr. Clay's resolution passed the House by a vote of eighty to seventy-five. The administration was still un- moved, however, and in February, 1821, Clay brought forward a resolution embodying a similar view which was again approved by the House. He was the chairman of a committee to visit the Presi- dent, and officially make known the action of the House ; l but it was not until March 8, 1822 (more than eighteen months prior to the announcement of the Doctrine, afterward become so famous) that Monroe, believing the proper hour had arrived, sent a message to Congress, recommending the recogni- tion by the United States of the Spanish American Eepublics. It met with prompt response. Clay's motives on any subject seldom escaped unhappy questioning, but here at least he ought to be credited with sincerity. They came " straight from his generous impulses." 2 Clay's sympathies for all ranks of mankind were predominant again when he reviewed in so notable a way the extraordinary and lawless behavior of General Jackson in the Floridas, with reference to the Seminole Indians. He perhaps may not have 1 For Adams's views at this time see Memoirs. Vol. V, pp. 324-325. 2 Schurz, p. 168. CONSTKUCTIVE POLICIES 97 before fathomed the " military hero's" power in a democracy j he may not have realized how, do what he might constitutionally or unconstitutionally, a successful warrior can occupy and dominate the popular fancy. Again, if there was thought that the American people could choose such a leader in preference to men of so much more poise, refine- ment and true ability in the management of civil affairs, he may not have reckoned with Jackson's singularly unforgiving heart. If he had been in- formed beforehand of all these things, however, it is fair to think that Mr. Clay's course would have been unchanged. Not one word did he speak un- feelingly and while assailing Jackson at some points, with all the vigor that can be put into speech, it was done with so much oratorical grace as com- pared with criticisms passed in Congress by one public man upon another, at a later day, that it should not have led to that outburst of malignity on the part of Jackson and his friends which pursued Clay until his death. Jackson had raised troops in Tennessee without authority ; he entered Florida, then still belonging to Spain, to pursue Indians who from that vantage- point raided settlements under jurisdiction of the United States. In the spring of 1818 he captured the Spanish fort of St. Mark's, hanged Indian chiefs, lured into his net by methods outside the pale of civilized warfare ; court-martialed two British sub- jects, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who were found with the Indians and were accused of instigating them to outrage, and shot them to death ; seized Pensacola, deposed the governor and left an Ameri- 98 HENKY CLAY can garrison at the old Spanish post. Such high- handed proceedings created great amazement, ex- cept among the lower orders of men, always "for their country, right or wrong," especially when the policy involved the famous hero of New Orleans. The administration was obliged to dis- avow a part at least of Jackson's performances, and resolutions appeared in Congress condemning his course. A prolonged debate ensued and on Jan- uary 20, 1819, it was kuown that Clay would speak. He was now the most admired orator on Capitol Hill. Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, who heard this speech, tells of the great effect which it produced : 1 1 When I reached the Hall, it was so crowded that it was impossible to join my party. . . . The Senate had adjourned to hear Mr. Clay. All the for- eign ministers and suites [and] many strangers were admitted to the floor [who] in addition to the mem- bers rendered the house crowded. The gallery was full of ladies, gentlemen and men, to a degree that endangered it. Even the outer entries were thronged and yet such silence prevailed that, though at a con- siderable distance, I did not lose a word. Mr. Clay was not only eloquent but amusing and more than once made the whole house laugh. ... To hear the better I had seated myself on some steps quite out of sight of the house ; when Mr. Clay had fin- ished, he came into the lobby for air and refresh- ment. The members crowded round him and I imagine by his countenance what they whispered must have been very agreeable. When he saw me he came and sat a few minutes on the steps by me, throwing himself most gracefully into a recumbent CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 99 posture. I told him I had come prepared to sit till evening and was disappointed at his speech being so short. He said he had intended to have spoken longer, but his voice had given out ; he had begun too loud and soon exhausted himself. . . . The gentlemen are grown very gallant and attentive and as it was impossible to reach the ladies through the gallery, a new mode was invented of supplying them with oranges, etc. They tied them up in handker- chiefs, to which was fixed a note indicating for whom it was designed, and then fastened to a long pole. This was taken on the floor of the House and handed up to the ladies who sat in front of the gallery. I imagine there were near one hundred ladies there so that these presentations were frequent and quite amusing, even in the midst of Mr. Clay's speech. I and the ladies near me were more accessible and were more than supplied with oranges, cakes, etc." In this notable address Mr. Clay took the gravest exception to Jackson's treatment of the Indians. He found the causes of the Avar in the general's Treaty of 1814, which he read and which he declared to be " utterly irreconcilable with those noble prin- ciples of generosity and magnanimity which I hope to see my country always exhibit, and particularly toward the miserable remnant of the aborigines." Its terms were u hard and unconscionable," and could not but soon lead to ' ' greater exasperation and more ferocity " on the side of the " conquered party." There was no right " to practice under color of re- taliation enormities on the Indians." " This was the first instance," he declared, "in the annals of the country." Even when we were weak and they 100 HENEY CLAY were comparatively strong we did not " destroy Indian captives, combatants or non-combatants*' and bring to bear upon them ' ' the bloody maxims of barbarous ages." As for the execution of Ar- buthnot and Anibrister, a gentleman in the House had said that it was only the wrong mode of doing a right thing. ' i In what code of public law, ' ' said Clay, " in what system of ethics, nay, in what re- spectable novel, where if the gentleman were to take the range of the whole literature of the world will he find any sanction for a principle so monstrous ? ' ' Such procedure clearly pointed, he believed, to the end of free government. i ' Eecall to your recollec- tion the free nations which have gone before us. Where are they now f " 'Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were, A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour ! ' And how have they lost their liberties ! " He eloquently pointed to the examples of Greece and Eome, and the disasters which befell them at the hands of military chieftains. He spoke of Bona- parte and then said : "I hope not to be misunder- stood ; I am far from intimating that General Jack- son cherishes any designs inimical to the liberties of the country. I believe his intentions to be pure and patriotic. I thank God that he would not, but I thank Him still more that he could not, if he would, overturn the liberties of the republic. . . . We are fighting a great moral battle for the benefit not only of our country but of all mankind. . . . Do you expect to execute this high trust by tramp- ling, or [suffering to be trampled down law, justice, CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 101 the Constitution and the rights of the people? by exhibiting examples of inhumanity, and cruelty, and ambition ¥ When the minions of despotism heard in Europe of the seizure of Pensacola, how did they chuckle and chide the admirers of our in- stitutions ? . . . Behold, said they, the conduct of those who are constantly reproaching kings. . . . Beware how you give a fatal sanction in this infant period of our republic, scarcely yet two score years old, to military insubordination. Ke- member that Greece had her Alexander, Eome her Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte and that if we would escape the rock on which they split we must avoid their errors." 1 It was a brilliant piece of oratory but the House, by majorities ranging from thirty to forty-six, voted down the various resolutions expressive of its disap- probation of Jackson' s course. He was still the hero that he had been, and indeed seemed to gain by this attempt, as many esteemed it, to put him in a bad light before the nation which he had leaped for- ward to serve. A clear riddance of these border troubles with the Indians, and of the confusion of sovereignty arising from the efforts to control them, could be secured only by the acquisition of Florida, which was soon arranged for and brought before Congress for its sanction. Mr. Adams's efforts were declared to have been successful only a few weeks after Clay had delivered his ringing speech. The treaty ex- cluded Texas from the ceded area. It was approved by the Senate but the King of Spain was slow to 1 Influenced undoubtedly by memories of Patrick Henry. 102 HENRY CLAY give it bis ratification, whereupon many were in favor of taking forcible possession of Florida. Mon- roe sent a message to Congress on the subject on March 27, 1820, and Clay entered the discussion with a speech which increased his renown at the time, and gave him the title to a gift of prophecy in later years. He asserted that Texas already be- longed to the United States as a part of the Louisiana Purchase, and accused the administration of having made a very bad bargain with Spain when it had agreed to surreuder the claim to this great territory in return for Florida. And this was not all. Though he would not give Texas for Florida "in a naked exchange," we were bound by the treaty to pay $5,000,000, claims upon Spain, amounting probably to three or four times that sum, and to make other considerations. Texas he declared to be " extremely valuable." "The climate was delicious, the soil fertile ; the margins of the rivers abounding in live oak and the country admitting of easy settlement." Here was a great colony for us ready at hand contiguous in area. ' ' The same Mississippi from whose rich deposit the best of them [Louisiana] had been formed," he said, ' ' will transport on her bosom the brave, the patriotic men from her tributary streams to defend and preserve the next most valuable, the province of Texas." He had no wish to minimize the worth of Florida, though it was "incomparably less " than that of Texas. Moreover, enclosed by Alabama and Georgia, Florida could not escape, and five or ten years more or less would matter little to the United States. In this, too, did Clay fail, though he and CONSTRUCTIVE POLICIES 103 his admirers, when Texas must be repurchased for a large sum of money and by a war, could point with some interest to the policy which he had un- availingly advocated twenty-five years before. At length Spain ratified the treaty and it was pro- claimed by President Monroe on Washington's Birthday, 1821. Mr. Clay again spoke as the friend of struggling humanity on January 20, 1824, when a resolution came before the House of Eepresentatives extending sympathy to the Greeks in their revolution against Turkey. The war was marked by great atrocities, and Daniel Webster, who sat in the House as a Federalist from Massachusetts, introduced a measure providing for the recognition of Greek independence by the appointment of a commissioner. Here again Clay followed the bent of his impulses, so charitably awakened, in reference to the South American states. In this speech the orator uttered some of his most impassioned measures. u Are we so humbled, so low, so debased," he asked, "that we dare not express our sympathy for suffering Greece ; that we dare not articulate our detestation of the brutal excesses of which she has been the bleeding victim lest we might offend some one or more of their im- perial and royal majesties? . . . Are we so mean, so base, so despicable that we may not at- tempt 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 104 HENRY CLAY of blood and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart sickens and recoils? " As for such action on the part of the United States tending " to whet the vengeance of the Turk against his Grecian victims, ' ' he did not believe it. ' ' When he is made to understand," said Mr. Clay in a burst of eloquence, "that the Executive of this govern- ment is sustained by the representatives of the people j that our entire political future, base, column and entablature, rulers and people, with heart, soul, mind and strength are all on the side of the gallant people whom he would crush, he will be more likely to restrain than to increase his atrocities upon suffer- ing and bleeding Greece." Some he surmised might oppose the resolution because it had been offered by a Federalist. " If it were possible for Eepublicans to cease to be champions of human freedom," said he, " and if Federalists become its only supporters, I would cease to be a Republican ; I would become a Feder- alist." Though this resolution was never acted upon, the speech stamped Clay as the consistent advocate of suffering manhood in all parts of the earth, and whatever effect it may have had upon some minds, still more strongly entrenched him in the affections of his friends. CHAPTER V THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE The first of that series of compromises of the issue between North and South on the slavery question, in the management of which Mr. Clay played so prominent a part, had to do with the admission of Missouri into the Union. Should it be a slave or a free state ? Here Clay made a beginning as a public man in that class of activity which soon caused him to be called "the Great Pacificator. " His power over the people in all portions of the country was enormous, and this, joined to his love of the Union and his parliamentary finesse, made him a leading influence in the work of temporarily composing the differences of the two sections. The service seems infinitely less important since the Civil "War than it did before that event. Those who labored to avert the war have had to make way in our esteem for those who successfully directed and prosecuted it. It is Clay's fate, though he struggled manfully against disunion for thirty years, to be relegated to a far less important place in our history, as it is taught and understood by the aver- age American, than is assigned to those who have gained our affections because it was their fortune to have a hand in the physical subjugation of slavery, and whose fighting was done upon the field of battle. 106 HENKY CLAY Mr. Clay's dislike of slavery could not have been else than real and great. His generous heart, full of sympathy for all the downtrodden and op- pressed — South Americans, Indians and Greeks — made no exception of the blacks held as bond- servants in the South. We have seen that emanci- pation was one of the first subjects to engage his attention as a young man when he arrived in Kentucky from Virginia, and he said on January 20, 1827, at the annual meeting of the American Colonization Society in Washington : " If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain [slavery] from the character of our country, and re- moving 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 that gave me birth, or that no less beloved state which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror." He had started with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry and the other Virginians, all of whom at this early day did not attempt to conceal the evils of slavery. He passed over to the advocacy of the colonization movement, which also claimed the sympathy of Lincoln, and was in- deed at first a favorite plan of Benjamin Lundy and the Northern Abolitionists themselves. What his attitude became as the dispute waxed hotter and more furious we shall later see. It is enough at this point to know that though he himself had a number of slaves at work upon his estate near THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 107 Lexington, he sincerely abominated the system of bondage and wished the country in all its parts well rid of the evil. In his speech in behalf of sending a minister to South America on May 10, 1820, Clay said in the House : • ' Will gentlemen contend, be- cause these people are not like us in all particulars, they are, therefore, unfit for freedom?" In some particulars he ventured to say that the people of South America were in advance of us. On the point which had been so much discussed on the floor during the present session they were greatly in advance of us: "Granada, Venezuela and Buenos Ayres had all emancipated their slaves." The reference here to the discussions of the " present session" is to the Missouri question, into the settlement of which he was injected in a promi- nent way. That Mr. Clay was not the emancipa- tionist in this contest is very plain, though his speeches are either not at all or else very incom- pletely reported. Mr. Schurz hints that there was design in this, 1 but the suggestion seems not quite credible. In any event, much concerning Clay's attitude at this time is left to inference, and this inference clearly is that he played the part of the Southern man. His convictions as to the wrongs of slavery, however sincere, did not obtrude in these debates, and it was certainly because of his South- ern affiliations and, as it was believed and stated, his Southern sympathies, that he was enabled to exert his important influence in pacifying the hos- tile elements, and in putting off the day of reckon- ing on this great sectional issue. It was the South 1 Schurz, Vol. I, p. 182. 108 HENRY CLAY which always needed to be appeased on this ques- tion, though it is probably true that the South at this time was more deeply attached to the Union than the North. 1 It is assumed, therefore, that it was willing to give up more for the sake of the Union than at a later day. However all this may be, it is plain that a very unhappy crisis in the affairs of the two sections was successfully passed in 1820-21, through the exer- tions of Henry Clay. That his course does not mark him as an Abolitionist is less important in establishing his reputation as a public man, at the time in which he lived, than would have been his unalterable antagonism to slavery. At any rate, he chose to pacify rather than to disrupt, which would have been the result, since war between the sections could not have come at this time. The sections would have separated in all probability peacefully. It is the purpose of a very large volume which has rather recently appeared 2 to show that Henry Clay did not originate the Missouri Com- promise, as is not infrequently assumed, and ergo that it was not a Southern measure. It was, ac- cording to this contention, forced upon the Southern people. They were compelled to give open or tacit assent to the principle that the admission of a state might be made contingent upon the denial of the right of a citizen to hold and use slaves, and that the national government might restrict slavery in the territories. If this can be shown, then, it is 1 Mrs. Archibald Dixon, The Missouri Compromise and its Re- peal, p. 86. 3 Ibid. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 109 argued that less opprobrium will attach to the actiou of those who took part iu the repeal of the Coniprouiise iu 1854. It is quite true that Mr. Clay did uot originate the measure, which became a battle-cry for North and South during the ensuing forty years. For some time slaveholders had been emigrating with their slaves across the Mississippi River into the country there acquired by the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. In 1818 Missouri had pro- gressed so far in wealth and population that she applied for admission as a state. A bill authori- zing her to form a constitution for her government appeared in the House on February 13, 1819, and James Tallmadge, a Republican from New York, moved as an amendment that the further enslaving of negroes should be prohibited in the new state, and that negro children born into slavery should be emancipated upon arriving at the age of twenty-five years. This was the signal for the great contest over the constitutional rights of the slaveholder, and the economic and moral aspects of his institu- tion. Defiant speeches were indulged in, though these seem to have meant much less than at a later day, and secession was spoken of nearly everywhere as though it were an every- day right. The dissolu- tion of the Union was very near at hand, if all that was said augured anything. On February 16, 1819, three days after its introduction, the House passed the Missouri bill with the restriction on the subject of slavery, which, however, was promptly stricken out by the Senate. The measure came back to the House but it failed in the Fifteenth Congress. 110 HENRY CLAY The fruit of the session was a bill organizing one portion of the Mississippi country obtained by the Louisiana Purchase into the territory of Arkansas, Clay speaking against the prohibition of slavery there in emphatic terms. 1 When Congress met in December, 1819, three territories applied for admission to the Union as states, Alabama, Maine and Missouri. The plea of the first of these was granted at once. It was slave ground beyond peradventure and no one thought of keeping it out of the Union on this account. It was a balance for Illinois. Missouri, on the other hand, was doubtful, and it was the Southern hope to play it off against Maine, according to the system tacitly agreed to of adding a slave state and a free state to the Union at the same time, in the great work of maintaining the sectional equilibrium. Many petitions were received, praying for Mis- souri's admission, both with and without slavery. John W. Taylor of New York, afterward Speaker of the House of Representatives, was the leader of the free- state men in that branch of Congress. Up to this time no such excitement in regard to slavery had been known in this country. On De- cember 30th, Speaker Clay said, on the subject of the admission of Maine, that he was not prepared for the question. He was not opposed to this terri- tory's coming into the union, " but before it was finally acted on he wished to know whether certain doctrines of an alarming character, — which if per- severed in, no man could tell where they would end — with respect to a restriction on the admission of 1 Annals of Congress, Vol. II, p. 1223 et seq. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 111 states west of the Mississippi were to be sustained ou this floor." And he continued: "If beyond the mountains Congress can exert the power of im- posing restrictions on new states, can they not also on this side of them ! ... If the states of the West are to be subject to restrictions by Congress, whilst the Atlantic states are free from them, pro- claim the distinction at once ; announce your priv- ileges and immunities. Let us have a clear and distinct understanding of what we are to expect." l Mr. Clay made himself the outspoken advocate of the unconditional treatment of Missouri. 2 " Equal- ity," he said, "is equity. If we have no right to impose conditions on this state [Maine] we have none to impose them on the state of Missouri. . . . The doctrine is an alarming one, and I protest against it now, and whenever and wherever it may be asserted . . . that any line of distinction is to be drawn between the Eastern and Western states." He asserted that to impose restrictions upon Mis- souri on the subject of slavery was to strip it "of an essential attribute of sovereignty. " 3 In January, Mr. Taylor moved an amendment to the Missouri bill prohibiting slavery, 4 and the com- bat raged day by day for several weeks, newspaper wags of the time denominating it the "Misery [Missouri] Debate." On February 8, 1820, the question had gotten into so confused and angry a position that Mr. Clay rose in Committee of the Whole and for nearly four hours addressed the House against the right and expediency of the pro- 1 Annals of Congress for that year, Vol. I, pp. 831-832. 'Ibid., pp. 834-835. ■ Ibid., p. 842. 4 Ibid., p. 947. 112 HENRY CLAY posed restriction upon Missouri, of which no more is said in the official reports of the proceedings. 1 Of this doubtless very notable speech there is no record except in the responses of those who disagreed with Mr. Clay. The remarks of a speaker, as they are paraphrased by an opponent in a parliamentary debate, are an unfair basis for judgment, but it is certain that he did not in this discussion dwell upon the evils of slavery and make a record for himself as an emancipator of the black man. Meanwhile the respective claims of Missouri and Maine to statehood were being discussed in a similar way in the Senate. As the debates proceeded it be- came clear that the House with its Northern ma- jorities would not agree to the extension of slavery west of the Mississippi ; while the Senate, where the balance of the sections continued so much longer, and where the South found the guaranty of what it was pleased to regard as its equal liberties in the Union, would not agree to admit Missouri under any restriction upon the rights of the slaveholder, meanwhile excluding Maine altogether. It was at length proposed by Senator Thomas of the new state of Illinois, which had come into the Union in 1818, that both Maine and Missouri should be admitted : the one, of course, without slavery ; the other with it, under the proviso that in the terri- tory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, slavery should not exist anywhere, except in Missouri, north of the line 36' 30" north latitude; i.e., the southern bound- ary of Missouri. This measure passed the Senate 1 Annals, Vol. I, p. 1170. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 113 by a vote of thirty-four to ten on February 17th. 1 The majority included fourteen Southern votes. When the Senate's solution of the difficulty reached the House, it was not favorably received by either Southern or Northern members. Clay himself ad- vised that the prohibition of slavery be made a " recommendation for Missouri's free acceptance or rejection." 2 He learned of a movement for the withdrawal from Congress of the Southern members iii a body. One evening John Randolph approached him, saying: "Mr. Speaker, I wish you would leave the chair. I will follow you to Kentucky or anywhere else in the world." "That is a very serious proposition which we have not now time to discuss," Clay answered. "But if you will come into the Speaker's room to-morrow morning before the House assembles, we will discuss it together." Clay himself expressed a fear that the Union, if not at once, in a few years would be split into three confederacies, an eastern, a southern and a western. 8 The congressional reports indicate that the Speaker was one of the most active in the debate, yet his remarks are never recorded. At length, on March 2d, after many votes had been taken, and a conference of representatives of the two chambers had been held, the House agreed to the provision in regard to the line 36' 30" north latitude by a vote of ninety to eighty-seven. This result was attained only by some manipulation, in which we can well believe that Clay had an important part. Eighteen 1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 428. 'Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1556. 8 Schurz, Vol. I, p. 197. 114 HENRY CLAY of these niuety votes came from Northern states whose legislatures or citizens had solemnly protested against the admission of Missouri with slavery, and John Randolph immediately gave them the immor- tal name of " dough -faces." On March 2d, on the main question of concurrence, the vote was 134 to 42. The Maine bill was now slipped through, to be signed by the President at once. The next day, March 3d, Randolph moved a reconsideration of the Missouri question. Speaker Clay declared the motion out of order, and he was sustained in this opinion when the maker of the motion appealed to the House. The plea was that the regular morn- ing business must be disposed of. When Randolph found his opportunity, he renewed his activity only to find that while the petitions were being presented, the Speaker had signed the bill and had sent it off to the Senate by the clerk. As it was no longer in the possession of the House, a bill to reconsider it could not be entertained, a course of action whereby Randolph was greatly enraged. John Quincy Adams, angry like Randolph, though iu an oppo- site interest, called it " trickery and an outrage upon the rules of the House." ' Thus the struggle over Missouri, for the time being at least, was at an end, though neither side enjoyed the terms which had been obtained, and a difference which promised to develop into a great national crisis was — happily or unhappily as our view may be — bequeathed to the future. The Compromise was no sooner announced than there was a close scanning of the records of the con- 1 Memoirs, Vol. V, p. 4. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 115 gressmen. How had they voted on this great ques- tion ! Many went home to very angry constituencies and the excitement during the summer of 1820 was in- tense. The Missourians, as if to defy the fates which had so narrowly favored them, now proceeded to adopt a course indicating incredibly little tact. They proceeded to insert in their new constitution provisions prohibiting their legislature from ever, at any time, putting a restraint upon slaveholders, and barring from the state free negroes who might desire to enter it to make it their home. Black men were to be slaves eternally in Missouri, a most unpleasant subject of reflection for those Northern people who abominated the Compromise even in its best form. Clay having suffered heavy financial misfortune, through his endorsements for a friend, felt himself compelled to withdraw for a time from public life, to devote himself to better paid pursuits in Lexington. He had been Speaker of the House ever since he had entered it in 1811, except for the absence abroad while negotiating the Treaty of Ghent. He announced now, when the Sixteenth Congress convened for its second session, that he could not be present until after the new year had begun and he begged therefore that his colleagues would elect another presiding officer. The choice fell upon Mr. Taylor, the anti-slavery leader of New York, and the struggle over Missouri, which had broken out afresh as soon as Congress met, was at its height when Clay found it convenient to return to Washington. Indeed, the news of the situation crossing the mountains hastened his coming, and there was need at once for all the pacificatory in- 116 HENRY CLAY fluences of which his position and nature gave him command. The Missouri bill was entitled, " An act to au- thorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories." It was a mere "en- abling act " which called for further proceedings on the part of Congress. It was now the business of that body to scrutinize the frame of government adopted by the new state before finally approving of its admission to the Union, and this work the members undertook with much advice from their constituents. The argument covered a wide field. It was urged in defense of the provision which barred free negroes from residence in Missouri that other states main- tained restrictions against them. In Vermont and New Hampshire they might not bear arms. In Rhode Island if a negro were caught out-of-doors at night after nine o'clock he was to be publicly whipped by a constable. "No negro except a subject of the Emperor of Morocco or a citizen of the United States" could remain in Massachusetts longer than two months. Being then told to go he was in ten days entitled to a public whipping. Even white persons who were strangers in a neigh- borhood could be fined, imprisoned and whipped in New York and some other Northern states, if lin- gering within its borders, they promised to become public charges. In the Senate, Mr. Eaton of Tennessee offered an THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 117 amendment to the resolution, declaring Missouri a state of the Union " on an equal footing with the original states," in terms as follows: " Provided that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to give the assent of Congress to any provision in the Constitution of Missouri, if any such there be, which contravenes that clause in the Constitution of the United States which declares that ' the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens in the several states.'" 1 The resolution with the Eaton proviso finally passed the Senate on December 12, 1820, by a vote of twenty-six to eighteen, and was sent to the House for its concurrence. There the discussion did not await the action of the Senate ; it was already far advanced in acrimony. On December 13th a House measure to admit Missouri was rejected by a major- ity of fourteen, amid intense excitement. The vote was ninety-three to seventy-nine. " The Missouri question is the most portentous that ever threatened the Union," said the aged Thomas Jefferson at " Monticello." " In the gloomiest moments of the Revolutionary War I never had any apprehension equal to that I feel from this source." On January 16, 1821, the journal of the proceed- ings of the House announces : " Another member, to wit from Kentucky, Henry Clay, appeared and took his seat." 2 His coming had been awaited with more anxiety than these few words would indicate. In and out of Congress it was believed that he would find some method of applying balm to the gaping 1 Annals of Congress, p. 41. 2 Ibid., p. 872. 118 HENRY CLAY wound. Hopelessness was written on the faces of Southern and Northern men. The House continued its wrangling over the question always with the same general outcome. One statistician computes that it had now voted just seventeen times against the admission of Missouri. 1 On the 24th of Jan- uary, a resolution of Mr. Eustis of Massachusetts having been rejected, " after a pause, Mr. Clay rose and gave notice that if no other gentleman made a motion on the subject, he should, on the day after to-morrow, move to go into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, to take into con- sideration the resolution from the Senate on the sub- ject of Missouri." a This was the beginning of a movement which under Clay's skilful management brought the unhappy impasse to an end. He was not ready with the motion until the 29th, where- upon the Eaton resolution to admit Missouri with the caveat against the provision in its constitution, if there were any, which conflicted with the Con- stitution of the United States, was taken up. Clay himself, Randolph and others spoke on the ques- tion. Many and various amendments were pro- posed during the next few days. Absolutely no basis of agreement was discoverable, although Clay used his conciliatory influences in favor of most of the proposals, and exhibited a temper indi- cating that he himself would be willing to accept almost any plan which promised to bring about a harmonious understanding. On February 2d, seeing no other open course 1 Mrs. Dixon, Missouri Compromise, p. 103. 3 Annals of Congress, p. 944. THE MISSOUBI COMPKOMISE 119 and ' ' anxious to make a last effort to settle the dis- traeting question," l he moved to refer the resolu- tion of the Senate to a committee of thirteen mem- bers, one for each of the original states, of which he was made the chairman. It included such leaders as Eustis of Massachusetts, John Sergeant of Peuu- sylvania, Lowndes of South Carolina, Cobb of Georgia and Campbell of Ohio. Five members came from Southern, and eight from Northern states. On February 10th the committee reported great diversity of opinion in its own membership, but in order to attain, if possible, an amicable ad- justment of the difficulty, it proposed an amend- ment to the resolution of the Senate. This was of considerable length and instead of the Eaton proviso, contained a stipulation that the state should be ad- mitted "on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental con- dition that the said state shall never pass any laws, preventing any description of persons from coming to and settling in the said state, who are now, or hereafter may become citizens of any of the states of this Union ; and provided also that the legislature of the said state, by a solemn public act, shall de- clare the assent of the said state to the said funda- mental condition, and shall transmit to the Presi- dent of the United States, on or before the 4th day of November next, an authentic copy of the said act, upon the receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact ; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said state into the 1 Annate of Congress, p. 1027. 120 HENRY CLAY Union shall be considered complete : And provided further, that nothing herein contained shall be con- strued to take from the said state of Missouri, when admitted into this Union, the exercise of any right or power which can now be constitutionally exer- cised by any of the original states." ' The hope was expressed by the committee (its chairman, if all signs do not fail, voicing its opinion in the report) that its plan would be received in the spirit in which it had been devised. The belief was entertained that " all must ardently unite in wishing an amicable termination of a question which, if it be longer kept open, cannot fail to pro- duce, and possibly to perpetuate, prejudices and animosities among a people to whom the conserva- tion of their moral ties should be even dearer, if possible, than that of their political bond." 2 Amid much confusion, the amendment which Mr. Clay's committee had proposed was defeated by a small majority, the twenty -fourth time the House had refused admission to Missouri with the slavery provisions in her constitution. 3 On Feb- ruary 13th it was determined to reconsider the vote. In a speech upon this motion Mr. Clark of New York pertinently said : ' ' The course pursued by this House on this subject is (to say the least of it) most extraordinary. You will neither dismiss it nor decide on it, but you cling to this firebrand of discord with the utmost pertinacity without inti- mating what your ultimate object is." Mr. Clay spoke for an hour, urging and entreating the House 1 Annals of Congress, p. 1080. 3 Ibid. 3 Mrs. Dixon, Missouri Compromise, p. 110. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 121 to pass the resolution, but it declined by a vote of eighty-eight to eighty-two, Randolph and a few radical Southerners cooperating with the Northern- ers in the hope of defeating the scheme with motives very different from those which actuated the anti- slavery men. Meanwhile the votes for President and Vice-Presi- dent were to be counted and a grave dispute arose as to whether or not Missouri, which had chosen electors, should participate in the election. An- other special committee was appointed, with Clay as chairman, to confer with a committee of the Sen- ate as to the method to be pursued. Continuing his conciliatory counsel, since, whether Missouri's vote for James Monroe were or were not counted would not affect the result, he advised a hypothet- ical statement in the sense that if that state's votes were counted A. B. would receive votes, if not counted votes. This method was finally adopted, although there was almost unheard-of ex- citement at some points in the proceedings. A week later, on February 21st, Mr. Clay's col- league, William Brown of Kentucky, offered a reso- lution providing for the repeal of that feature of the Missouri bill of March 6, 1820, which placed a re- striction upon slaveholding in any part of the Louisiana Territory. He supported it in a speech in which he explained that he did not advocate this course because of any conference with his " friend and messmate" Henry Clay, who knew nothing of his design. " My colleague," he was at pains to explain, " who has labored arduously and zealously to settle this question and tranquilize the Union, is 122 HENRY CLAY not willing yet to despair ; he indulges the hope that something may still be done." The very pos- sibility of a serious movement of this kind, however, put the matter in a new light before the Northern members. If the South were to go back and propose the repeal of the " Compromise " feature of the law, what might not be expected from that section 1 Of course, the Brown resolution did not pass, but the question in hand was materially advanced. The next day Clay proposed the appointment of a com- mittee of the House to meet with a committee of the Senate jointly to devise and propose a basis of settlement. This motion was passed by a vote of 101 to 55. A committee of twenty-three members, elected by ballot, one for each of the states though not from each of the states (for New York as well as Pennsylvania had no less than four members) met with seven senators, and the joint committee, through Clay, reported to the House on February 26th the following resolution : "Resolved by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States of America in Con- gress assembled, that Missouri shall be admitted iuto the Union on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition that the 4th clause of the 26th section of the 3d article of the Constitution, submitted on the part of said state to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the states in this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 123 United States : Provided that the legislature of said state by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said state to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of said act ; upon the receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact ; whereupon, and without further proceedings on the part of Congress the admission of the said state into the Union shall be considered as complete." a In the work of securing a favorable vote upon this resolution, Clay neglected no resource both on and off the floors of Congress. On one occasion at an evening sitting after the Speaker, Mr. Taylor, had twice declared motions of Mr. Clay out of order and in violation of the rules for the procedure of the House, the great Kentucky leader rose and pitching his voice even beyond its highest wont exclaimed : "Then I move to suspend all the rules of the House. Away with them ! Is it to be endured that we shall be trammeled in our action by mere forms and technicalities at a moment like this, when the peace and perhaps the existence of the Union is at stake ? ' ' One of Mr. Clay' s friends then present has said that he carried his point by storm. 2 Nor did he fail to use his persuasive powers upon individual members of Congress. Even those who were not his friends could speak of " the winning, 1 Annals of Congress, p. 1228. 2 John J. Crittenden's speech at Louisville on the "Life and Death of Henry Clay," September 29, 1852; Robert C. Win- throp's Memoir, p. 8. 124 HENRY CLAY courtly Mr. Clay." ! He reasoned, he appealed to the emotions, he remonstrated and urged — in short, he neglected nothing which promised to help him in gaining the end in view. He predicted that failure to come to some agreement would break up existing party relations and lead to new combina- tions, with results that none could foretell. The House passed the resolution of the joint com- mittee by a vote of eighty-six to eighty-two, on the final vote eighty-seven to eighty-one, and two days later, on February 28th, the Senate approved it with twenty-eight yeas and fourteen nays. Thus the first great crisis in the history of the slavery question in this country was met ; thus was Henry Clay reinstated in the esteem of many elements which had come to question his good motives by reason of his opposition to the policies of President Monroe. "The greatest result of this conflict of three sessions," wrote John Quincy Adams, while the enthusiasm of the victory was fresh in his mind though he had so lately complained of the " preg- nant evidences" of the Kentucky leader's " over- bearing " attitude, 2 was " to bring into full display the talents and resources of influence of Mr. Clay." 3 ^ni. Winston Seaton, A Biographical Sketch, p. 159. 3 Vol. V, p. 278. 'Ibid., p. 307. CHAPTER VI THE ELECTION OF 1824 As though it were his principal title to a reputa- tion, it is iterated and reiterated of Henry Clay that he was a disappointed seeker for the presidency. The average man and woman of this generation will cherish this impression, if they lack all others in re- gard to him. The long series of misfortunes attend- ing him in the effort to realize this ambition began in 1824. James Monroe's two terms were coming to their end j the " Virginia dynasty " would pass into history and the new impulses introduced into political life by the War of 1812 in the persons of Clay, Calhoun and, as it seemed, too, of Jackson, who awakened the military enthusiasm of the people and came to be regarded as a fit candidate for the presidency on this account, made the ap- proaching campaign a memorable one. Mr. Clay was not a member of the Seventeenth Congress. When he returned to Lexington at the end of the short session in March, 1821, it was to continue the work of straightening out his private affairs which he had begun during the previous summer. He was counsel for the Bank of the United States in Ohio and Kentucky at a remunera- tive salary, and industriously devoted himself to the practice of the law and to the management of his interests at " Ashland." At about this time 126 HENRY CLAY Kentucky was undergoing much excitement on the subject of paper money. Unsound views regarding the currency were everywhere prevalent, and Clay, presidential candidate though he was supposed to be, firmly upheld the unpopular side in this con- troversy. He defended sound financial principles at every opportunity, but was not long to be left at home in a field so limited in usefulness. The Lexington or " Ashland District,' 7 returned him to the Congress which met in December, 1823. During the summer of that year Mr. Clay was very ill, his state of health being ascribed to his close application to business. He repaired to the Olympian Springs in Kentucky, and, because of his failure to improve under the regimen there, seriously contemplated spending the ensuing winter in the South. He was disinclined to absent himself from Congress, however, and set out betimes with a light carriage and a saddle horse on his way to Washington. Driving, riding and walking by turns, he reached the capital, by easy stages, very much benefited by the journey. He was, as a mat- ter of course, with scarcely any opposition, returned to his place in the Speaker's chair, which he had graced for so many years. Almost his first act upon resuming his seat in the House was in line with his attitude in Kentucky on the money question. His course was an effective rejoinder to any charge affecting his sincerity or courage in public life. He actively opposed a bill to grant a pension to the mother of Commodore Perry. Though every popularity-seeking speaker in Congress was eager to array himself on the side THE ELECTION OF 1824 127 of the needy old lady, Clay declared quite posi- tively, and not unavailingly, that he could not favor the claim. The hero of Lake Erie had not died of injuries received in the service of his coun- try. The government had already gone quite far enough in making provision for his widow and children, and there must be some limit to the atten- tion bestowed upon military and naval characters at the expense of men who were quite as serviceable to the republic. ' i Shall we select the families of those who wore epaulettes on their shoulders, ' ' he asked pertinently, u whilst we leave to pine in penury the families of those who have spent their lives in civil service 1 ?" l Clay's principal claim upon the attention of the country as a presidential candidate, aside from his recent conspicuous part in bringing about an ac- commodation on the Missouri question, was the determination with which he pressed his internal improvement and protective tariff policies. Al- though still in ill health, he took the most active part in the discussions of the House. President Monroe persisted in his view that it was no proper function of the Federal government under the Con- stitution to build roads and canals. Clay abated nothing of his faith, and in January, 1824, a bill appeared in the House authorizing the President to direct the making of surveys for a system of interior highways, in order to forward postal, commercial and military communication. The sum of $30,000 was set aside for this purpose. Clay entered the debate with all the gay spirit of 1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 982. 128 HENRY CLAY his nature. For some time lie Lad been preparing a statement of his views which he offered to the House on February 14th. 1 A member had said that the Constitution contemplated the exercise of all "municipal" functions by the states. Mr. Clay replied that the navigation of the Mississippi, canals connecting the waters of the Delaware and the Chesapeake and to unite the Ohio and the Potomac, the Cumberland Road, and other enterprises which he mentioned, were matters that no state or states would ever be likely to forward to definite ends. The powers of both governments, national and state, were undoubtedly municipal, often operating upon the same subject. To him, he said, that " to establish post-roads" meant "to fix, to make firm, to build," and he would appeal for support "to any vocabulary whatever of respectable authority." From this " express grant" he passed to the in- ferential one in reference to canals, which he traced to the power of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states. He railed at members who would support bills appro- priating money for docks and lighthouses on the seacoast to help the foreign trade, and would do nothing for domestic trade. He put it to the candor of his opponents " whether the only differ- ence is not that which springs from the nature of the two elements on which the two species of com- merce are conducted — the difference between land and water." "The principle," he said, "is the same whether you promote commerce by opening for it an artificial channel where now there is none, 1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 1022. THE ELECTION OF 1824 129 or by increasing the ease and safety with which it may be conducted through a natural channel, which the bounty of Providence has bestowed. In the one case your object is to facilitate arrival and departure from the ocean to the land. In the other, it is to accomplish the same object from the land to the ocean." It was also very clear to Mr. Clay that roads and canals might be built by the nation for military uses. 1 1 These, ' ' he said with great truth, ' ' are in the nature of fortifications since, if not the depositories of military resources, they enable you to bring into rapid action the military resources of the country, wherever they may be. They are better than any fortifications, because they serve the double purpose of peace and war. They dispense, in a great degree, with fortifications, since they have all the effect of that concentration at which fortifications aim.''' As was his wont, he made the cause of the West his own, and voiced the hopes and ambitions of his people, as it was common to call them, and as they truly were in many respects. It would be impossi- ble, he said, " to alienate the affections of the West from this government. . . . You may impover- ish them, reduce them to ruin by the mistakes of your policy and you cannot drive them from you." They had received little enough — only the Cumber- land Eoad which stopped at Wheeling, on the " mere margin of a Western state," though he had "toiled," until his powers had been "exhausted and prostrated," to prevail upon Congress to com- plete this highway, that they might have the means to reach the capital of their country. The govern- 130 HENRY CLAY meut was to last, he hoped, " forever "—at any rate " until the wave of population, cultivation and in- telligence shall have washed the Kocky Mountains and mingled with the Pacific." Canals and roads were but a part of the " improvements and comforts of social life " which he wished might spread " over the wide surface of this vast continent." It was in this discussion that another famous pas- sage occurred with John Randolph. In an ex- tremely ill-mannered though able discourse, the Virginian turned his attention to Mr. Clay's defini- tion of the word " establish " as it was used in the Constitution. Words he called "the counters of wise men, the money of fools," and predicted that by the use of them the people would yet be cajoled out of their rights and liberties. There never had been such violation of language by liberal construc- tion " since the days of that unfortunate man of the German coast, whose name was origiually Fyerstein, anglicized to Firestone, but got by translation from that to Flint, from Flint to Pierre-a Fusil and from Pierre-a-Fusil to Peter Gun." 1 No one knew what "a mass of criminality" may not have been in- curred because " never till now had our people a preceptor learned enough to instruct them in the meaning of the word ' establish.' " Mr. Clay rose to reply, evidencing his affront at Randolph's language and manner. He believed that his situation in health, leading to magnanimity in some quarters of the House, would have induced a ' ' generous heart ' ' to desist from efforts to draw him into a "personal altercation." He made no 1 Annals of Congress, Vol. I, p. 1296. THE ELECTION OF 1824 131 pretensions as a "preceptor." "I know my defi- ciencies," Mr. Clay continued. "I was born to no proud patrimonial estate ; from my father I inher- ited only infancy, ignorance and indigence ; " whereupon Randolph leaned over to a friend, and remarked that the Speaker should have continued the alliteration and added "insolence." ! "I feel my defects," Clay continued, "but so far as my situation in early life is concerned, I may, without presumption, say, they are more my misfortune than my fault." Thus did the relations between these two men grow more unfriendly, leading at length to an encounter which Clay in his calmer years regarded with much disfavor and self-reproach. The bill authorizing the Federal surveys that this " Western Hotspur," as some of his foes delighted to call him, so ably advocated, passed the House by a vote of ninety to seventy-five, and being approved by the Senate, was signed by the President on some inconsistent excuse. Fruitless though it was, it marked an impressive advance in the development of our const i tu tional doctrine. The tariff of 1816, in the adoption of which he had had the aid of Calhoun and the South, was soon adjudged by Clay and the protectionists of the Cen- tral and Western states to be too low. A little usually calls rather loudly for more protection, and the measure which was enacted in 1816 was really a mild fillip to domestic industries in com- parison with many of the later American tariffs. An artificial prosperity had followed the war, and times were still far from what they should have been 3 Wm. Winston Seatou, p. 152. 132 HENKY CLAY in the view of many interests. In 1818 the duty en iron was increased, and in 1820 Clay, in a long and impressive speech in the House, advocated a general revision of the law. 1 Though it passed that branch of Congress largely through his influence, it failed in the Senate by a single vote, and it was still before the country in 1821 upon his return to active par- liamentary life. It was in this debate that Clay christened his policy the "American system," a name which it continued to bear to its very great advantage for many years. His important speech on this subject was made in the House of Eepresentatives on March 30th and 31st ; he spoke for four and one-half hours on the 30th and concluded on the following day. "The object of the bill under consideration," he said at one point, " is to create this home market and to lay the foundations of a genuine American policy." " Is there no remedy within the reach of the government ? " he said again, after depicting the country's ills. " Are we doomed to behold our in- dustry languish and decay yet more and more ? But there is a remedy and that remedy consists in mod- ifying our foreign policy, and in adopting a genuine American system." It was true, as was remarked the following day by Webster, who sympathized with the New Eng- enders who were still free-traders, in defense, *as they believed, of their shipping trade, that the u American system" was misnamed, but this did not at all matter. ' ' Since Mr. Speaker denominates the policy which he recommends l a new policy in 1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 218. THE ELECTION OF 1824 133 this country/" said Webster, with some reason; " since he speaks of the present measure as a new era in our legislation j since he professes to invite us to depart from our accustomed course, to instruct ourselves by the wisdom of others, and to adopt the policy of the most distinguished foreign states, — one is a little anxious to know with what propriety of speech this imitation of other nations is denomi- nated an i American policy, ' while on the contrary a preference for our own established system, as it now actually exists and always has existed, is called a ' foreign policy.' This favorite American policy is what America has never tried ; and this odious foreign policy is what, as we are told, foreign states have never pursued." That Mr. Clay's argument at all points did not betray complete mastery of the principles of polit- ical economy need occasion no very great surprise. He was not a profound student of that subject. He expressed himself as under some obligations to Mathew Carey, who was industriously propagating protectionist theories in Philadelphia. He had a mass of information in hand bearing upon the in- dustrial condition of the country, most of which was entirely reliable, and arraying all this in order, and ornamenting it for oratorical use, it became very effective in a legislative chamber. It is easy to find the flaws in his line of reasoning, and some are much too obvious ; but in general it reflected credit upon his learning, and greatly increased his reputation for sincerity of heart. In the main an argumenta- tive discourse, flowers of speech were not entirely eschewed, as when he said : 134 HENRY CLAY "The difference between a nation with and with- out the arts may be conceived by the difference be- tween a keel-boat and a steamboat combating the rapid torrent of the Mississippi. How slow does the former ascend, hugging the sinuosities of the shore, pushed on by her hardy and exposed crew, now throwing themselves in vigorous concert on their oar3 and then seizing the pendant boughs of overhanging trees : she seems hardly to move ; and her scanty cargo is scarcely worth the transporta- tion ! With what ease is she not passed by the steamboat, laden with the riches of all quarters of the world, with a crew of gay, cheerful and pro- tected passengers, now dashing into the midst of the current, or gliding through the eddies near the shore ! " He closed with a statement of the difficulties which beset the advocates of the bill. They were, he said : " First, the splendid talents which are arrayed in this House against us. Second, we are opposed by the rich and powerful in the land. Third, the ex- ecutive government, if any, affords us but a cold and equivocal support. Fourth, the importing and navigating interests, I verily believe from miscon- ception, are adverse to us. Fifth, the British fac- tors and the British influence are inimical to our success. Sixth, long- established habits and preju- dices oppose us. Seventh, the reviewers and liter- ary speculators, foreign and domestic. And lastly, the leading presses of the country, including the in- fluence of that which is established in this city and sustained by the public purse. "From some of these, or other causes, the bill THE ELECTION OF 1824 135 may be postponed, thwarted, defeated. But the cause is the cause of the country, and it must, and will prevail. It is founded in the interests and af- fections of the people. It is as native as the granite deeply embosomed in our mountains. And, in con- clusion, I would pray God, in His infinite mercy, to avert from our country the evils which are im- pending over it and by enlightening our councils to conduct us into that path which leads to riches, to greatness, to glory." This speech is regarded by Mr. Schurz as u the most elaborate and effective" Clay ever made. 1 No ideas which are not very familiar to those who have followed the course of protectionist speech and wri- ting in this country in a century, under the inspira- tion of the two Careys, were developed by the Ken- tuckian ; but it is probable that no one up to that time at least had ever presented them so fully and forcibly. The bill passed the House by a majority of three and the Senate by the same small majority. Its enactment was effected mainly by the votes of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Calhoun and the South were now rapidly changing their position in reference to this subject, 2 and New England had not yet joined the Middle states in support of the policy of which, in later years, it became the unfail- ing champion. Thus did Clay stand as a public man when at the end of Monroe's second term a successor was to be chosen to the presidency. There were in the field, principally, John Quincy Adams, in line for the 1 Vol. I, p. 214. 2 Hunt, Calhoun, p. 61 et seq. 136 HENKY CLAY succession by reason of his service as Secretary of State and his large public experience ; Jackson, now a senator from Tennessee, the military candidate ; Clay, Calhouu, Monroe's Secretary of War ; aud Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Crawford, the skilful Georgia politician whose name is now all but gone out of the popular mind. In the contest which was in prospect Clay was not to be so promiuent a factor as he and his friends hoped and perhaps anticipated. He did not con- ceal his desire to become the successor of Mr. Mon- roe. His claims were actively supported by Thomas H. Benton, a cousin of Mrs. Clay, now lately come to the Senate from the new state of Missouri. The candidate had devoted lieutenants in many states, the personal attachment to him in quarters wherein he was at all admired being of a remarkable kind. It was at a day when aspirants for the presidency were not nominated in party conventions, and in this " era of good feeling' all were nominally members of the same party. The congressional caucus, as a means of agreeing upon a candidate, had fallen iuto disfavor, and the issue was largely in the hands of state conventions and legislatures. As early as in 1822, Clay was nominated for the presidency by the Kentucky legislature, and other states had also expressed their preference for him. In the region in which his strongest support might have been expected, however, the West and South, Jackson made large inroads. The " hero of New Orleans" suddenly became the stuff out of which it was thought by the masses of the people that a great lawgiver might be made. He gained the THE ELECTION OF 1824 137 electoral votes of a number of states, and indeed led the poll with, ninety-nine against eighty-four for Adams, forty-one for Crawford and thirty-seveu for Clay. As no one had a majority, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which now by constitutional provision, was required to choose from among the three leading candidates. This was a task of some difficulty in the existing state of popular feeling and the result might very likely have been the election of Clay, the favorite Speaker of the House, if he had been on the eligible list. As it was, with the electoral votes of Ken- tucky, Ohio and Missouri, and four votes from New- York, he was considered to control the situation, and was courted by all the aspirants in the hope that he would forward their respective ambitious. Some have thought that he did not very gracefully accept his own defeat ; but he had lost nothing as a national figure and his prominence, indeed, was en- hanced by his situation. In the midst of the excitement, it was his pleasant duty as Speaker of the House to welcome Lafayette, whose coming to America, in 1824, everywhere awakened the dearest national memories. 1 The Kentuckian had long been in correspondence with the old patriot, who was completely captivated by the young statesman's warm heart, somewhat French as it probably was, with all its graces and quick impulses. Mr. Clay's address on this occasion was 1 Indeed, it was suggested that Lafayette should be elected Vice-President and Clay wrote his friend, Senator J. S. Johnston, on September 3, 1824—'- Such a disposition of the office would be highly creditable to the national gratitude, if it could be made without any constitutional impediment." 138 HENEY CLAY most happy. He spoke of "the very nigh satisfac- tion which your presence affords in this early theatre of your glory and renown." In one respect he would find the Americans unaltered — " in the senti- ment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection, and profound gratitude to your departed friend, the father of his country, and to you and your illustrious associates in the field and in the cabinet for the multiplied blessings which surround us." This sentiment, he continued, " now fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, will be transmitted with unabated vigor down the tide of time through the countless millions who are des- tined to inhabit this continent, to the latest pos- terity." This interregnum, during which all factious for- got their differences, was only brief. Even Jackson thought it well to try to win the favor of Clay, though the latter' s course in condemning the gen- eral's conduct in Florida during the Seminole War still rankled. No one seems to have known just where the Kentucky leader would be found when the task of choosing from among Jackson, Adams and Crawford really faced him. Crawford could not have tempted a man like Clay, uor did he exert auy fascination upon the country at large. He had lately suffered partial paralysis, so that he was not able to append his name to the documents in the Treasury Department. Clay wrote from ' ' Ashland ' ' to his friend, J. S. Johnston, on October 2, 1824, that he had just heard from a man who had seen Craw- ford. " He says that his gait, articulation, and general appearance indicated most clearly the THE ELECTION OF 1824 139 paralysis under which he has labored ; and that he appeared to be much more infirm than Mr. Jeffer- son at the age of eighty-two, whom he also saw." * The real choice lay between Jackson and Adams. It is rather difficult now to see how there was room to expect any but one result. With General Jackson Clay could have nothing in common, so far as good judges of humau nature are able to discern. Their courses up to this time indicate no meeting-ground, and as their characters were unfolded later, sincerely and naturally enough, in spite of exaggeration here and there for personal antagonism, no congeniality of view presented itself. Clay could not give his support to a" military chieftain merely because he has won a great victory." He could not believe that "killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans " qualified for " the various difficult and complicated duties of the chief magistracy." a It is true that Adams and Clay had come into con- flict at Ghent. They were men of essential differ- ences. If Adams's diary does not magnify, they had had a bitter dispute about the disposition of the papers affecting the negotiations, though it was a puerile quarrel, and should not have left open wounds. Adams here and there in his journal had expressed unfavorable opinions of Clay, but few, who were subjects for allusion at all, escaped his criti- cisms. Anyhow, they were just passing views con- fided to a diary which is always a trusted friend. Once in 1820, however, Adams had said of Clay, alluding to his habit of playing cards for money, 1 Letter in Collections of Pennsylvania Historical Society. * To F. P. Blair, Jan. 29, 1825, Private Correspondence, p. 112. 140 HENRY CLAY which report, among his political enemies, was per- sistently attributed to him : u In politics as in pri- vate life Clay is essentially a gamester, and with a vigorous intellect, an ardent spirit, a handsome elocution, though with a mind very defective in elementary knowledge and a very undigested system of ethics, he has all the qualities which belong to that class of human characters." 1 The next year Adams, again stung by some attack, said : " Clay is an eloquent man with very popular manners and great political management. He is, like almost all the eminent men of this country, only half-educated. His school has been the world and in that he is a proficient. His morals, public and private, are loose but he has all the virtues indispensable to a popular man. . . . Clay's temper is impetuous and his ambition impatient. . . . As President of the Union his administration would be a perpetual suc- cession of intrigue and management with the legisla- ture. It would also be sectional in its spirit, and sacrifice all other interests to those of the Western country and the slaveholders." 2 These were harsh opinions from a man who was now to be President or not to be President, by the favor of him concerning whom they were uttered ; but that they had been cherished or recorded no one knew until the diary was published, twenty-five years after Clay's death. It is not likely, anyhow, that the revelation of them would have influenced the action of a heart so magnanimous. The Jackson men made much of the fact that their candidate had received a plurality of votes. They 1 Memoirs, Vol. V, p. 59. 2 Ibid., pp. 325-326. THE ELECTION OF 1824 141 pretended to believe that this imposed an obligation upon the House, which, however, refused to be bound by it, for Clay and his men very soon made it clear that they would support John Quincy Adams. This knowledge aroused all the ire in Jackson's nature, and his forces, many of whom were always recruited from the rough and lawless elements of the population, turned upon Clay savagely. He was treated to anonymous letters, threatening him with personal injury, and efforts of mau3 r kinds were made to move him from his determination. " No man but myself," he said later, in reviewing the trials of this exx^erience, " could know the nature, extent and variety of means which were employed to awe and influence me." " The knaves cannot comprehend how a man can be honest," he wrote to Francis P. Blair. " They cannot conceive that I should have solemnly interrogated my con- science, and asked it to tell me seriously what I ought to do." l " They all have yet to learn my charac- ter," he said in a letter to his friend Brooke, " if they suppose it possible to make me swerve from my duty by any species of intimidation or denuncia- tion." None of these devices availed. "I shall view without emotion," he further wrote Brooke, "these effusions of malice and remain unshaken in my purpose. What is a public man worth if he will not expose himself, on fit occasions, for the good of the country'?" The most dastardly trick of all was the publication of a letter, on January 28th, less than a fortnight 1 Private Correspondence, p. 112. 142 HENRY CLAY before the election in the House, in the Columbian Observer, an inconspicuous newspaper issued in Philadelphia. The correspondent wrote from Wash- ington. He took his pen in hand to tell the editor of "one of the most disgraceful transactions that ever covered with infamy the Republican ranks." He had heard of a " bargain " which was as bad as "the famous Burr conspiracy of 1801." Adams had offered Clay the post of Secretary of State after Jackson had refused the overtures of Clay to the same end. Such doings would mean the "end of liberty." No name was signed to the communica- tion, but it was said to have come from a member of Congress. Clay was probably too hasty in leaping at such an assailant, but on February 1, 1825, he issued a card in the National Intelligencer, the most essential portion of which was his statement that, if the letter were not a forgery, he would "pronounce the member, whoever he may be, a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard and a liar." "If he dare unveil himself and avow his name," Mr. Clay con- tinued, " I will hold him responsible, as I here admit myself to be, to all the laws which govern and regulate men of honor." He soon repented of the last words of his statement, especially when he learned the identity of the writer of the letter. He said afterward that he did not wish to seem to be the patron of the duel, " a pernicious practice which no man could hold in deeper abhorrence." "Condemned as it must be," he added, "by the judgment and philosophy, to say nothing of the religion of every thinking man, it is an affair of THE ELECTION OF 1824 143 feeling about which we cannot, although we should reason. Its true corrective will be found when all shall unite, as we all ought to unite, in its unquali- fied proscription." The writer of the letter when he came out of hiding, which he did in a day or two in i i another card ' ' in the National Intelligencer, proved to be George Krenier, a Pennsylvania con- gressman, a well-known partisan of Jackson. He was a quite ridiculous figure in Washington, as at home. He was mainly famous for his leopard skin overcoat, and eccentric behavior generally, so that Mr. Clay, as none knew better than he, had shot at too small a mark. Nevertheless, Clay asked for the appointment of a committee in the House to investigate the charge. It was elected by ballot. Kremer, who had been so bold, now refused to give any authority for his allegations, and there was no report except a state- ment to this effect which was made on February 9th, the very day that the House assembled to elect a President of the United States. Adams was chosen, receiving the votes of thirteen states, while Jackson was supported by only seven and Crawford by four delegations. Clay was appointed Secretary of State, and although Jackson and fourteen other senators voted against the confirmation of the name, the result was accomplished without them. With Adams and Clay both in their offices, the "terms of the bargain'' wore the appearance of having been carried out. In the minds of many people, Clay's acceptance of the position strength- ened the impression of the existence of an under- standing between him and Adams, or, at any rate, 144 HEXKY CLAY between their respective friends. In vain did Clay say that he had no alternative bnt to choose Adams as President j he could not conscientiously favor Jackson. In vain did Adams explain that he de- sired to avail himself of Clay's great experience as a public man, which had been the sole motive in appointing him to be the head of the State Depart- ment. In vain was the retort that James Buchanan and others had proffered Clay a place as Secretary of State in Jackson's cabinet, if he would but sup- port the hero of New Orleans. In vain did both men now and hereafter resent the imputations of their enemies. Kremer had been a mere instrument and dupe. Jackson himself returned to Tennessee raging about u bargain and corruption" and the "great con- spiracy," while his friends took up the cry and circulated it until there was no backwoods settle- ment which was not able to talk fluently of the event for the next twenty years, unsupported as it was by one scintilla of evidence. 1 As late as in 1844, when Jackson reiterated the charge, it again deprived Clay of votes which he needed, and might have had at the election of that year. Even if there had been such a bargain, there was no neces- sary inference of corruption, yet this incident was the stalking horse of politics throughout the whole Jacksonian epoch in our national history. The oftener the story was repeated, the more it was denied. Colton in his Life of Clay devoted four chapters of his work to the "corrupt bargain," 1 Schurz, Vol. I, p. 246 et seq. ; Sumner, Jackson, p. 90 et seq. THE ELECTION OF 1824 145 and the bugaboo grew greater each time the subject was discussed. Ou March 3d, Clay retired from the House of Representatives, and from his place as its Speaker, which he had held almost continuously since the day he entered the chamber. A resolution was passed, thanking him for u the able, impartial and dignified manner 1 ' in which he had presided over the de- liberations of the body, and Mr. Clay in response made a graceful speech in the course of which he said : "Near fourteen years, with but comparatively short intervals, the arduous duties of the chair have been assigned to me. ... Of the numerous decisions which I have been called upon to pro- nounce from this place on questions often suddenly started, and of much difficulty, it has so happened from the generous support given me, that not one of them has ever been reversed by the House. I ad- vert to this fact, not in a vain spirit of exultation, but as furnishing a powerful motive for undis- sembled gratitude. In retiring, perhaps forever, from a situation with which so large a portion of my life has been associated, I shall continually re- vert, during the remainder of it, with increasing respect and gratitude to this great theatre of our public action. . . . In returning to your respect- ive families and constituents, I beg all of you, without exception, to carry with you my fervent prayers for the continuation of your lives, your health and your happiness." To John Quincy Adams he was "the unrivaled Speaker," ' while Eobert C. Winthrop of Massachu- 1 New Jersey Letter, 1827. 146 HENEY CLAY setts declared: "Mr. Clay was six times elected Speaker of the House, and held that lofty position longer than any one in the history of our country before or since. No abler or more commanding officer ever sat in a 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. There was a magnetism in his voice and manner which attracted the willing attention, acquiescence and even obedience of those over whom he pre- sided." No painstaking student of parliamentary law, he relied usually upon his own instinctive sense of what was proper and practicable in the emergency at hand. Once, many years afterward, he said to Mr. Winthrop, while the latter occupied the chair : " I have attentively observed your course as Speaker, and I have heartily approved it. But let me give you one hint from the experience of the oldest survivor of your predecessors. Decide — de- cide promptly— and never give your reasons for the decision. The House will sustain your decisions, but there will always be men to cavil and quarrel about your reasons. ' 7 l This brilliant epoch in his life had now come to an end. Mr. Clay is to be viewed in a new field — as Secretary of State. 1 Winthrop, Memoir of Clay, p. 8. CHAPTER VII SECRETARY OF STATE It is quite likely that no four years in Clay's life were so unhappy as those which he spent at the head of the Department of State. Though he wished the office, probably only as a stepping-stone to the presidency, which he believed it to be, he must have realized after the experience that he was preemi- nently intended by nature for other public fields. His place was as a parliamentary leader. He was the Prince Rupert of debate. There was meagre, if any, satisfaction in store for him in the places where governmental tasks are quietly performed, and he chafed until he became quite ill under the restraints of his position. He knew himself well when he wrote to Francis Brooke on February 18, 1825, while dis- cussing the expediency of accepting the office : "I have an unaffected repugnance to any executive employment. " The years during which he was Secretary of State yielded few notable results to the nation and were marked by personal bitterness, rancor and discord. They were filled with the echoes of the presidential contest of 1824, and the noise which preceded the greater battle to be waged in 1828. There were few opportunities for Clay to speak, or to do any of those things which gave him most joy and which enabled him to shine brightly as a public character. 148 HEKRY CLAY He loved the din of action. He needed apprecia- tion and praise. He was, beyond most men, raised up by success and cast down by defeat. He was likely to be over -joyous or over-despondent, and his moods made him a man whom many of his con- temporaries, as well as his later judges, did not always understand. The experience served at least to make a friend of John Quincy Adams, whose colder, more severe views of life had sometimes led to misunderstanding. In a speech at Lexington on July 12, 1827, Clay said of Adams : — "I have found him at the head of the government, able, enlightened, patient of inves- tigation and ever ready to receive with respect and when approved by his judgment to act upon the counsels of his official advisers. . . . From the commencement of the government, with the excep- tion of Mr. Jeiferson's administration, no chief magistrate has found the members of his cabinet so united on all public measures, aud so cordial and friendly in all their intercourse, private and official, as these are of the present President." To Crawford he wrote, in the next year : "I had fears of Mr. Adams's temper and disposition, but I must say that they have not been realized and I have found in him, since I have been associated with him in the executive government, as little to censure and condemn as I could have expected in any man." l On the other hand, Mr. Adams, by closer acquaintance, was brought greatly to admire his Secretary of State. His diary for this period contains mauy friendly references, — and none that 1 Private Correspondence, p. 194. SECRETAKY OF STATE 149 are unfriendly— to Mr. Clay. Their relations were at every point harmonious, else record would have been made of it by the diarist. It has been so often said of Clay that he was an unseemly seeker after the presidency that his devotion to his chief in these years needs to be noted. He thought and spoke of no other candidate for the succession ex- cept Adams himself. No disloyalty like that which Chase, another man whose ambitions are often under review, exhibited toward Lincoln, characterized Clay. He served with deference. He consulted when differences of opinion arose and acceded gracefully. The President and his Secretary of State were fel- low sufferers in such a storm of calumny as had not been experienced by any public man since John Adams was helped out of office through this agency by the Jeffersonians. The son was now living through a like period, and would suffer in the same way at the hands of the Jackson men, a still ruder type of Democrats, recruited from the growing back-settlements of the West, and fed upon new ideas of equality which had never yet gained a practical ascendency in the management of the gov- ernment. Hitherto the people, though they were " equal," were willing by common consent to place their superiors in public office. They felt an honest pride in doing this. Now for the first time skill and experience in statecraft, and learning of all kinds, were to be cast to the four winds, and the government was to be directed on an entirely dif- ferent plan. Adams's view of Clay was sincerely expressed 150 HENRY CLAT shortly after he left the presidency. He said in reference to the " corrupt bargain" story on March 11, 1829, in reply to a letter from a committee in New Jersey : ' ' Upon him [Clay] the foulest slan- ders have been showered. . . . The Department of State itself was a station, which, by its bestowal, could confer neither profit nor honor upon him, but upon which he has shed unfading honor by the manner in which he has discharged its duties. Prejudice and passion have charged him with ob- taining that office by bargain and corruption. Be- fore you, my fellow citizens, in the presence of our country and of Heaven, I pronounce that charge totally unfounded. ... As to my motives for tendering to him the Department of State when I did, let that man who questions them come forward. Let him look around among statesmen and legisla- tors of this nation, and of that dav. Let him then select and name the man, whom, by his preeminent 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 lib- erties of mankind, by his long experience in the affairs of the Union, foreign and domestic, a Presi- dent of the United States, intent only upon the honor and welfare of his country, ought to have pre- ferred to Henry Clay." ' These four years in the history of the State De- partment were not productive of any important pub- lic measure. One there would have been if it had succeeded, the first Pan-American Congress. The subject of our relations with the Spanish- American 1 Prentice, Appendix, pp. 300-301. SECRETARY OF STATE 161 countries was one which, now as before, strongly appealed to Clay's ardentl} 7 sympathetic nature and to his lively imagination. The experience here, as in other affairs, at close range with all the facilities for being apprised of the facts and with the respon- sibility of acting upon them, which a speaker in a legislative chamber seldom or never feels, was quiet- iug aud educational in its influence. The southern republics themselves had originated the plan for the congress which was to be held on the Isthmus of Panama at the junction point of the hemispheres. The scheme had been in mind for several years and the hope, of course, was the formation of a kind of cis- Atlantic Pan- American League to opx)Ose its trout against any possible European aggression now or in time to come. It was an undertaking of large dimensions and it sorely needed the favor of the United States. No more fortunate time could have been selected than during Clay's administration of the State De- partment, but after all the plans were laid, circum- stances arose wholly to prevent success. President Adams, who at first disapproved, was induced to favor the enterprise and he submitted to Congress a proposal for sending commissioners to the meet- ing. As a matter of course, the administration's ar- rangements were opposed. The slaveholding ele- ment, since the Missouri discussion, was being con- solidated. Adams, in his message, expressed such hopes for the nation under the Constitution as had not been heard since Hamilton's day. He favored not only extensive internal improvements, but also a national university and establishments to promote 152 HENRY CLAY " the cultivation of the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the advancement of literature, the progress of the sciences, ornamental and profound.* ! This was a monstrous theory at a time when the country had just emerged from twenty-four years of strict con- struction at the hands of the Virginians. It was now becoming convenient for Calhoun and his fol- lowers in the South to interpret the Constitution in the most niggard way in reference to the national powers. In state rights they conceived that they would find their stronghold against the Xorth, which they were shrewd enough to see was bearing them down to an inevitable fate. 1 Though the Panama Congress could not of itself be held to be unconstitutional, it was the project of a man who cherished and sought to impose upon the country very unconstitutional theories. More- over, the slaveholders feared association with states which had emancipated their negroes and which very likely might send black men to the conference as delegates. At length, however, opinion in Con- gress was appeased in some degree, since the under- taking promised to be very popular in the country at large ; the ministers were confirmed by the Senate, and the money was appropriated to bear the ex- penses of the mission. These envoys were John Sergeant of Pennsylvania and Richard C. Anderson of Kentucky. Clay had hoped to secure the serv- ices of Albert Gallatin, who, however, declined. The delegates started away in the summer of 1826, Anderson dying on the journey, whereupon Joel R. Poinsett, our Minister in Mexico, was asked to take 1 Hunt, Calhoun. ^=1 SECRETARY OF STATE 153 his place in the congress. When Sergeant arrived upon the ground, the Spanish- America us who, then as now, were like mercury, had adjourned to reas- semble in Mexico, but, involving themselves again in some of their inevitable revolutions, the second meeting was never held. The mission came to naught, except as a lesson to Mr. Clay, to put his faith not again in his earlier absolute way in the people of Latin America, though they should live in "republics" under "presidents." It was during the discussion in relation to the Panama mission that Mr. Clay was moved to great anger by a foul speech which fell from the lips of John Randolph. This man was growing more and more abusive and irresponsible in his utterances. In the summer of 1828 President Adams wrote of him that he was "the image and superscription of a great man stamped upon base metal." His mind was "a jumble of sense, wit and absurdity." ' It was in one of his "drunken speeches" in the Sen- ate, to which chamber he had been advanced late in 1825 to fill a vacancy, that he made his famous allusion to Adams and Clay as "the coalition of Blifil and Black George." Throughout it was probably the most blackguardly speech ever heard in either branch of Congress, but the confusion of the sentences, and the mental con- dition of the man who uttered them should have kept Mr. Clay, as it did Mr. Adams, from taking particular note of it. However, since the Panama missiou was Mr. Clay's particular measure, and he had been stung before by Randolph's tongue, it 1 Memoirs, Vol. VIII, p. 64. 154 HEXRY CLAY eeemed impossible for him to sit quietly under th« outrageous attack. Randolph maundered along, frequently introducing Greek and Latin phrases, and making many allusions to the figures in ancient history, holy and profane, in the history of Russia, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, Gil Bias, and nearly everything else which time had crowded into his mind. He indulged in remarks that drove the ladies from the galleries and was vainly urged by Hayne and other senators to take his seat. This he would not do until he believed himself done. He poured his ridicule upon a President who had been elected to be President of the United States, but was now busily engaged in trying to make himself " the President of the human race." " Who made him his brother's keeper?" Randolph inquired. ' ' Who gave him — the President of the United States — the custody of the liberties, or the rights, or the interests of South America, or any other America, save only the United States of America, or any other country under the sun ? " They used to race horses, play cards and play billiards, but these things were forbidden, and the tedium vitce now found expression in Sunday-schools, missionary societies, colonization societies — " taking care of the Sandwich Islands, free negroes, and God knows who." He had seen pious people in Virginia. Though the little negroes about them were so ragged as to be obliged to hide for shame, the women of the family were "employed in makiug pantaloons and jackets for the free negroes of Liberia." Randolph dwelt with great brutality upon the subject of the " corrupt bargain." il An alliance, i ■j SECRETARY OF STATE 155 offensive and defensive, had been got up between old Massachusetts and Kentucky j between the frost of January and young, blithe, buxom and blooming- May — the eldest daughter of Virginia, — young- Kentucky — not so young, however, as to make a prudent match and sell her charms for her full value.'' He began his allusion to Blifil and Black George by asking, " On what occasion was it thai Junius said, after Lord Chatham had said it before him, that it reminded him of the union between Blifil and Black George ? " He would not say which was Blifil and which was Black George. When he drew pictures, he did not write under them, "This is a man" or "This is ahorse." Continuing his observations, he came to a vote upon some resolu- tions which had gone against him. " I was de- feated, horse, foot and dragoons," he declared, " cut up and clean broke down by the coalition of Blifil and Black George — by the combination un- heard of till then of the Puritan with the blackleg." "Having disposed of this subject," continued Randolph, " I shall say one word more and sit down," but his promise was not fulfilled and he spun his mad skein of words for another hour. 1 When the report of this speech reached Clay's ears, he challenged Randolph, in the old Southern fashion, though but for Benton's extended report of the affair it would not have proven itself much bet- ter entitled to serious place in the annals of dueling than Clay's earlier experience upon the "field of 1 Register of Debates in Congress, 1825-1826, Vol. II, Part I, p. 389 et seq ; also Garland's Life of John Randolph, Vol, II, p. 249 et seq. 156 HEXKY GLAY honor." He bad lately exi)ressed his very great distaste for this method of settling private disputes, after he had reflected, as will be remembered, upon his outburst of rage following the publication of George Kreiner's letter in a newspaper in Philadel- phia. He sincerely hated it and was really him- self very inexpert in the use of weapons, so that he must have fared badly in any serious encounter. His ardent temperament, however, seemed to com- pel him to resent gross imputations upon his honor in this way, and he now issued another challenge which Randolph accepted promptly. From begin- ning to end the duel was a drama full of comical punctilio, though it might easily have ended fatally, for the principals were much in earnest. Randolph's speech was delivered on the 30th of March. On April 1st, according to Benton, Gen- eral Jesup, Clay's second, found the eccentric old Virginian and the arrangements were made for a meeting. The time fixed was at half-past four o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday, April 8th, on the Virginia bank of the Potomac, above the Little Falls Bridge. The combatants were to use pistols at the distance of ten paces. Benton, according to the "code," was barred from serving as a second, because he was a blood relation of Mrs. Clay, but lie was "at liberty to attend as a mutual friend." The men stood up and gravely observed all the cus- toms of duelists, the fire of each at the first passage having missed the object for which it was designed. Randolph's bullet struck the stump behind Mr. Clay, and Clay's " knocked up the earth and gravel behind Mr. Randolph." SECRETARY OF STATE 157 The mutual friend, Benton, now interposed, but both men demanded another shot. Clay again missed his mark, merely piercing the skirt of a white flannel wrapper which Randolph had curiously worn for the occasion. "The unseemly garment," says Mallory, 1 "constituted such a vast circumference that the locality of the thin and swarthy senator was at least a matter of very vague conjecture." Randolph himself fired his second shot into the air in some chivalrous spirit which took possession of his eccentric moods, saying, "I do not fire at you, Mr. Clay." 2 He advanced toward his antagonist, offering his hand and remarking, as he pointed to the bullet-hole, that Clay owed him a coat. The Secretary of Stata said in his happiest way, " I am glad the debt is no greater." Thus ended, what was for Benton, at least, as he wrote in later life, " the last high-toned duel " that he had seen. It was in- deed "among the highest- toned " that he had ever witnessed. 3 A number of treaties and conventions with for- eign powers were negotiated during Clay's incum- bency of the secretaryship. These related largely 1 Vol. I, p. 147. 9 The night before the duel Randolph sent for his friend Gen- eral James Hamilton of South Carolina, who said of that inter- view : "I found him calm, hut in a singularly kind and confi- ding mood. He told me that he had something on his mind to tell me. He then remarked, ' Hamilton, I have determined to receive without returning Clay's fire ; nothing shall induce me to harm a hair of his head. I will not make his wife a widow, or his children orphans. Their tears would be shed over his grave, but when the sod of Virginia rests on my bosom there is not in this wide world one individual to pay this tribute upon mine.' " 3 Benton, Thirty Years 1 View, Vol. I, p. 70. 158 HENRY CLAY to commerce and navigation. There was little op- portunity for a brilliant foreign policy which it is certain that Clay would have directed had the oc- casion presented itself. The passages with other governments, in which he had a hand, do not relate to subjects in our history which need to be remem- bered, and the four years added little to his fame as a public man, as they unfortunately contributed nothing to his own peace and enjoyment. He was u abused and assailed without example," as he said in a speech in Cincinnati on August 23, 1828. He had presumed to speak of Jackson asa " military chieftain," which was the excuse for a personal statement by " Old Hickory," and the fury of the combat increased, with "bargain and corruption" always in the foreground. No denial would avail. "The charge like every lie," as Mr. Colton re- marks, 1 " would travel over the continent while truth was putting its boots on. i) i 'Vol. V, p. 341. 9 Now already Clay and his friends were collecting testimony to rebut the story of the " bargain," a movement for campaign purposes which in subsequent years reached much greater pro- portions. On the 14th of December, 1827, he wrote from Wash- ington to the wife of his friend, Benjamin Gratz, in Lexington, at whose home in 1824 he had made statements concerning his relation to the respective claims of Adams and Jackson. He said : "I received this morning your obliging letter of the 3d in stant on the subject of that which I had addressed to Mr. Gratz. 1 have a distinct recollection of the occasion, at your house, on which the conversation stated by 3 r ou took place ; and lam per- fectly sure that your narrative of it is entirely accurate. I know not how to express, with sufficient warmth and gratitude, my very great obligations for your kindness in writing the letter and your generous permission to use it in my defense. Al- though I feel sensible that it would be of much benefit to me, and I should feel proud and honored by the exhibition of the SECRETARY OF STATE 159 Mr. Clay's health, while he was Secretary of State, was at times so miserable that his life was despaired of. The nature of his malady was rather mysterious, but it was made much worse by the campaign of calumny he was compelled to pass through and led several times to his thinking very seriously of resignation. The issue was several times under discussion with the President. On February 18, 1828, Mr. Adams writes in his diary : "Mr. Clay was here complaining of the state of his health, which he says is so bad that nothing, except the existing state of things, could induce him to continue longer in the public service. He thinks his health is gradually sinking and his spirits are obviously giving way under the load of obloquy, scandal and persecution which has been heaped upon him as well as upon me." 1 In April he again told the President that he must name of a fair witness, among the other respectable persons "who have testified to the same point, I cannot allow myself to use the privilege which you have given so kindly. I cannot con- sent to place your name in the public prints. Some rude and uncourteous editor or scribbler might say something to wound your feelings or my own on account of you. 41 1 shall write to Mr. Blair [Francis P. Blair who was pres- ent on the occasion] and procure his statement which may su- persede the necessity of a public use of yours, which I shall nevertheless file carefully away and preserve among my most cherished documents. ... I have nothing new to com- municate to you from this place. Of politics everybody is heartily tired, tho' we learn that the ladies in Lexington are arrayed under opposite standards, and take a lively interest in behalf of their respective favorites. I hope that the unusually large number of your sex who have come here this winter with the members of Congress, their husbands and relatives, will contribute to calm the angry and excited passions, and to smooth and soften our ways. . . . " 1 Memoirs, Vol. VII, p. 439. 160 HEXKY CLAY resign. 1 "A relaxation from public duties was in- dispensable and he must go home and die or get better. His disorder, ' ' Adams continued, u is a general decay of the vital powers, a paralytic tor- pidity and numbness, which began at the lower ex- tremity of his left limb, and from the foot has grad- ually risen up the leg and now approaches the hip." One day Judge Southard called upon the President and said that Clay could scarcely be expected to live a month longer. Mr. Adams heard every sug- gestion of resignation with real pain and regret, being not at all disposed to go on with his adminis- tration without his Secretary of State. A doctor told the President that the trouble was nervous, not paralytic, and Clay continued to attend to his many duties with regularity, though he went to Philadel- phia for a time to consult with and live under the care of some of the eminent physicians in that city. He told Adams, however, that • l he had little hope of surviving, and had so made up his mind as to set little value upon life." 2 His domestic afflictions bore heavily upon his spirit and its buoyancy might have been expected almost to desert him for reasons quite apart from his physical condition. In the space of a year or two he lost by death two of his daughters, including the beloved Mrs. Duralde of New Orleans. Indeed, but one now remained. A son was insane and another had misconducted himself so grievously as to cause his parents much pain. 3 For several weeks ^Memoirs, Vol. VII, p. 517. * Ibid., p. 521; also Mrs. Smith, First Forty Years of Wash- ington .Society, pp. 256-257, 276. 3 Mrs. Smith, p. 303. SECRETARY OF STATE 1G1 he was wholly unable to sleep except by the use of anodynes, 1 yet at " drawing rooms" he still kept on " the mask of smiles " 2 with a bravery which greatly increased the admiration of his friends. Mrs. Smith wrote on February 16, 1829 : " I never liked Mr. Clay so well as I do this winter ; the coldness and hauteur of his manner have vanished, and a softness and tenderness and sadness characterize him (to me at least), for I know not how it is in general society — that is extremely at- taching and affecting — at the same time perfect good humor j no bitterness mingles its gall in the cup of disappointment." 3 Mrs. Clay also was ill, and, while sharing her husband's domestic sorrows, at u the last drawing- room" of the Adams administration, "she re- ceived all with smiling politeness." Mr. Clay too concealed his feelings. He " looked gay and was so courteous and gracious and agreeable that ever}' one remarked it." He was determined, he said, that u we should regret him' when he had gone. " My heart filled to overflowing," Mrs. Smith con- tinues, "as I watched this acting, and to conceal tears which I could not repress, took a seat in a corner by the fire, behind a solid mass of people." There Mr. Clay sought her out and she spoke of her sad- ness on losing her friend, Mrs. Clay. "For a moment he held my hand, pressed in his, without speaking, his eyes filled with tears and with an effort he said : ' We must not think of this or talk of such things now,' and relinquishing my hand 1 Mrs. Smith, pp. 277, 303. * lbid. t p. 259, 3 Ibid., p. 276. 162 HENRY CLAY drew out his handkerchief, turned away his head and wiped his eyes, then pushed into the crowd and talked and smiled as if his heart was light and easy. Alas, I knew, what perhaps no other among these hundreds knew, that anguish, heartrending- anguish, was concealed beneath that smiling, cheer- ful countenance, and that the animation and spirits which charmed an admiring circle were wholly arti- ficial." l Mr. Clay was not abandoned by his friends, but they seemed fewer. They were being overwhelmed in numbers by the Jacksonians who descended upon everything like the flies and locusts of Egypt, and with about as much benevolent purpose in the view of Adams, Clay and those who shared their opinions. There were dinners tendered to the Secretary of State by his admirers, as he went back and forth between Washington and Kentucky ; on such oc- casions, he was nearly always called upon to rebut aspersion and calumny directed against himself and the administration. At a public dinner in Frazer's Tavern at Lewisburg, Va., on August 30, 1826, Mr. Clay responded to the toast : " Our distinguished guest, Henry Clay — the states- man, orator, patriot and philanthropist ; his splen- did talents shed lustre on his native state, his elo- quence is an ornament to his country." He again roundly defended himself and Mr. Adams. " A spirit of denunciation is abroad," said he. "With some condemnation, right or wrong, is the order of the day. No matter what prudence and wisdom may stamp the measures of 1 Mrs. Smith, p. 278. SECRETARY OF STATE 163 the administration j no matter how much the pros- perity of the country may be advanced, or what public evils may be averted, under its guidance, there are persons who would make general, indis- criminate and interminable opposition." ! Even in Kentucky, where they had earlier been so faithful to their " Great Hal," influences were at work which swept the state for Jackson in 1828. Amos Kendall was leading a movement on the sub- ject of the " bargain," holding, as Adams called it, "a self- constituted court of inquisition" in the legislature. In Lexington on July 12, 1827, Clay responded to the toast : u Our distinguished guest, Henry Clay: the furnace of persecution m In the course of his speech, upon a subject which it is never easy to make entertaining, there were some signs of lagging interest. To this Clay was not accustomed and he instantly regained attention by a clever allusion to the Vice-President. Calhoun, with sombre, sphinx-like countenance, his meta- physical theories of government coursing through his mind, was the presiding officer. Clay suddenly adverted to the South Carolinian's recent address to the people of the United States. In this he did not say that he himself believed a protective tariff to be unconstitutional ; he asserted only that such an opinion was held by others. It must be inferred then that the author of the address was of another view. Mr. Calhoun immediately aroused, and said that, if the senator from Kentucky alluded to him, he would state that he believed the protective policy to be unconstitutional. This was Mr. Clay's oppor- tunity and he continued : " When, sir, I contended with you side by side, and with perhaps less zeal than you exhibited in 1816, I did not understand you then to consider the policy forbidden by the Constitution." To this the Vice-President retorted that the con- stitutional question at the time was not under dis- cussion, and that he had never expressed any opinion different from the one he now entertained. " It is true the question was not debated in 1816," an- swered Clay, "and why not? Because it was not debatable ; it was then believed not fairly to arise. • . . What was not dreamed of before, or in NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 195 1816, and scarcely thought of in 1824, is now made by excited imaginations to assume the imposing form of a serious constitutional barrier." ] The interest of the Senate was immediately re- gained by this spirited interchange, and the discus- sion proceeded with many allusions to the "honor- able gentleman from South Carolina" which kept every one in a pleasant condition of amusement and expectancy. From Calhoun Clay passed to Albert Gallatin who had lately attacked the "American system," "a man," said Clay very angrily, "al- though long a resident of this country," with "no feelings, no attachments, no sympathies, no princi- |jles, in common with our people." Fifty years be- fore Pennsylvania "took him to her bosom, and warmed, and cherished, and honored him." How had he manifested his gratitude? "By aiming a vital blow at a system endeared to her by a thorough conviction that it is indispensable to her prosper- ity. ' ' There was no such thing as free trade. " The call for it," said he, " is as unavailing as the cry of a spoiled child in its nurse's arms for the moon or the stars that glitter in the firmament of Heaven." Trade could not be free unless the foreign country, as well as this country, would agree to make it so. What was called free trade was merely the " British colonial system." This it was which the United States was invited to adopt. From time to time General Hayne interposed a remark in behalf of South Carolina. In response to one of these interjections Mr. Clay said : "With respect to this Union, Mr. President, the 'Col tern, Vol. V, pp. 447-448. 196 HESTBY CLAY truth cannot be too generally proclaimed, nor too thoroughly inculcated that it is necessary to the whole and to all the parts — necessary to those parts, indeed in different degrees, but vitally necessary to each — and that threats to disturb or dissolve it among any of the parts would be quite as indiscreet and improper as would be threats from the residue to exclude those parts from the pale of its benefits. The great principle which lies at the foundation of all free governments is that the majority must gov- ern ; from which there is or can be no appeal but to the sword. The majority ought to govern wisely, equitably, moderately and constitutionally, but gov- ern it must, subject only to that terrible appeal. If ever one, or several states, being a minority can, by menacing a dissolution of the Union, succeed in forcing an abandonment of great measures deemed essential to the interests and prosperity of the whole, the Union from that moment is practically gone. It may linger on in form and name, but its vital spirit has fled forever." He again appealed to the spirit of Marion, Sumter and Pickens and asked the people " to pause, sol- emnly pause and contemplate the frightful precipice which lies directlv before them." " To retreat," he continued, u may be painful and mortifying to their gallantry and pride, but it is to retreat to the Union, to safety, and to those brethren wirh whom, or with whose ancestors, they, or their ancestors, have won on fields of glory imperishable renown. To advance is to rush on certain and inevitable disgrace and destruction." Danger to the Union did not lie "on the side of NULLIFICATION AND COMPEOMISE 197 persistence in the American system, but on that of its abandonment. What," he asked, "would the Uuion be without Pennsylvania and New York, those mammoth members of our confederacy f ' ' Let it be supposed that they, "firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed and their prosperity blighted by the enforcement of the British colonial system, under the delusive name of free trade," were to question the authority of the Union. In concluding Mr. Clay said to the South Carolinians : "However strong their convictions may be, they are not stronger than ours. Between the points of the preservation of the system and its absolute re- peal, there is no principle of union." If a particular provision operated immoderately upon any quarter, he would assist in its modifi- cation, but he left little room for Calhoun or Hayne to hope for favor at the hands of him, or his protec- tionist allies. The Senate passed his resolution and in June, 1832, a bill expressive of his views, known as the Tariff of 1832, was enacted by Congress. But the reduction of the duties on articles, mostly lux- uries, not produced in the United States was so slight, that it did not materially affect the surplus, while South Carolina's anger grew apace. Upon other public questions of vital importance in giving direction to the presidential campaign. Senator Clay, as the opposition candidate, was listened to with similar attention. His words trav- eled the length and breadth of the land. He aided in rejecting Jackson's nomination of Martin Van Buren to be Minister to England. He led the con- test with honest delight. Mr. Clay made his ob- 198 HENRY CLAY jections rest principally upun the fact that the President had already sent Mr. Van Buren abroad, taking for granted the Senate's consent ; and upon Van Buren' s action while Secretary of State in es- pousing, as Clay believed, the British side on a sub- ject left open by the preceding Secretary of State, no other than Mr. Clay himself. This change of policy had been explained, tactlessly enough, on the ground that, in the election of 1828, the people of the United States had rebuked the political party from which the proposal had come. This was an excellent opportunity to avenge an attack so per- sonal and how any one could have anticipated that Van Buren' s name would slip through the Senate with Clay upon the scene passes competent under- standing. It was an opportunity, too, for an at- tack upon Jackson for his system of proscribing his enemies, and of making the government a partisan political machine. Indeed, it was Clay's speech on the Van Buren nomination which directly led to Marcy's frank, and since famous declaration that " to the victors belong the spoils." In ascribing blame to Van Buren for this policy Mr. Clay said : "It is a detestable system drawn from the worst period of the Roman republic, and if it were to be perpetuated — if the offices, honors and dignities of the people are to be put up to a scramble, and to be decided by the results of every presidential election, our government and institutions becoming intoler- able, would finally end in a despotism as inexorable as that at Constantinople." Van Buren' s name called for a very close trial of party strength, and it was rejected only by Cal- NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 199 houu's casting vote. The South Carolinian found as much satisfaction in his course, as did Mr. Clay, for the Van Buren faction in order to get Calhoun out of the way had brought to the ' l old hero's" at- tention an interesting fact which seemed earlier to have escaped him. While Clay was abusing Jack- son in the open House for his conduct during tbe Indian war in Florida, Calhoun, as Secretary of War in Monroe's cabinet, was making an effort in another direction to have the general punished for his high- handed proceedings. Knowledge of this immedi- ately caused Jackson to regard as an enemy one who had heretofore seemed to be a friend, and Calhoun no less than Clay, though on very different ground, found great pleasure in an act which they ' believed would serve to make an end to Jackson's principal favorite. They yet knew little of the " hero's" re- vengeful spirit, or of his great personal power. This " creature," as Van Buren seemed and really was, soon became Vice-President and then Presi- dent of the United States, solely because it was Jackson's desire so to reward a faithful retainer. The national bank, it will be remembered, bad been chartered largely through Clay's influence after the War of 1812. It had done its part well, and when its twenty years' lease of life should expire in 1836, it was assumed that another would be given. Unhappily for it and its friends, the bank, or some of its branches, was adjudged by Jackson to be operated in antagonism to his political plans, and in his first message to Congress in December, 1829, he threatened to close the institution. His hostility 1 Hunt, Calhoun, pp. 112-113. 200 HENBY CLAY grew with each annual message, creating a very anxious feeling in financial circles. There was no imminent need of pressing the issue in 1831, but Clay had a wish to bring the matter before the coun- try, certain that Jackson would be much injured in the presidential contest, if Congress passed the bill renewing the charter, and the President should veto it. Both houses, therefore, proceeded to a discus- sion of the question and, having passed the measure extending the bank's powers by comfortable ma- jorities, sent it to the President, who promptly took the dare and returned the bill with his disapproval. The veto message came on July 10, 1832. It was a stump speech of the kind calculated to win great applause among those classes of the people who fol- lowed Jackson with such implicit confidence. The bank was a monopoly which, if popular liberty were to continue, must be destroyed. The orators in the Senate, Clay and Webster at their head, at once seized upon the message as the text for long and able speeches. The summer was wearing on and discussion seemed to gain in acrimony with the weather. Benton, having made himself the spokes- man of Jackson, was in the very centre of the melSe. His kinship with Mrs. Clay did not moderate the language which one leader employed in reference to the other, and amid wild scenes the President's veto was sustained. The vote was twenty -two to nineteen, it being practically assured from the beginning that the necessary two-thirds majority could not be ob- tained. It was, nevertheless, a political issue of which Clay felt very proud, as he did also of his position on the subject of the public lands. NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 201 Now that the public debt was being extinguished and there was to be no more need of large Federal revenues, au Arcadian belief arose that the national domain should be partitioned among the states. Clay had come out boldly, though perhaps not quite willingly, since the expression of his views at this time was forced upon him by his enemies, in favor of a policy which he advocated with energy and ability for many years. Jackson wished Congress to cede and surrender the public lands at nominal prices to the states in which they were situated. This was a sop to the new states, and took no ac- count of the sacrifices which had been made by the older portions of the Union in the acquisition of the public domain. Clay, on the other hand, desired the Federal government to keep control of the lands, and sell them gradually, giving the proceeds to all the states according to their population, to be ap- plied to educational purposes, and the promotion of internal improvements. " What especially would be the situation of Virginia?" Clay asked in the Senate as he reviewed the proposal of his opponents. " She magnanimously ceded an empire in extent for the common benefit. And now it is proposed not only to withdraw that empire from the object of its solemn dictation to the use of all the states, but to deny her any participation in it and appropriate it exclusively to the benefit of the new states carved out of it," Mr. Clay reached heights of eloquence on this subject. "The right of the Union to the public lands," he said, " is incontestable. It ought not to be considered debatable. It never was questioned 202 HENRY CLAY but by a few, whose monstrous heresy, it was prob- ably supposed, would escape animadversion from the enormity of the absurdity and the utter imprac- ticability of the success of the claim. The right of the whole is sealed by the blood of the Ee volution, founded upon solemn deeds of cession from sovereign states, deliberately executed in the face of the world, or resting upon neutral treaties concluded with for- eign powers, on ample equivalents contributed from the common treasury of the people of the United States. . . . Can you imagine that the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee would quietly renounce their right in all public lands west of them ? No, sir ! No, sir ! They would wade to their knees in blood, before they would make such an unjust and ignominious surrender.' ' Mr. Clay, by able arguments, caused his views to prevail in the Senate, but the measure was not acted upon in the House of Representatives. Thus with an enlightened policy on the subject of the public lands, friendship for the bank and for the " Ameri- can system" of which he stood as the particular champion, unalterable hostility to the doctrine of nullification as it was advanced in South Carolina, and opposition to all the sins of Jacksonism, petty and great, Clay went before the people of the United States as a presidential candidate in 1832. He and his friends felt certain that they would win. How could the party fail with such a leader on such a platform, against such an enemy — "the lank, lean, famished forms from fen and forest, and the four quarters of the Union," which on March 4, 1829, to use words once employed by Clay, had NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 203 " gathered together in the halls of patronage"? 1 Surely the " gallant Harry of the West" would sweep the Union and make the four years gone by seem a mere nightmare in the history of the re- public. It is true that Jackson was favored by a number of circumstances aside from his control of a party machinery, now being constructed for the first time and of incalculable use to him in the contest. He had popularized himself by some threats which had escaped him, to hang Calhoun as a traitor, and by the sentiments which he had so bluntly expressed that the Union must be preserved. This deprived Clay of any advantage that he personally might have got from his opposition to the nullification movement. Jackson profited, too, by the introduc- tion into politics of the subj ect of free masonry. He was an active Mason. Clay also belonged to the order, though he had not recently attended its meet- ings, and the anti-Masons decided to put forward a candidate of their own. They even wished Clay to make way for them so that they themselves could bring Jacksonism to an end, but he said very truly, and in emphatic language, that masonry or anti- masonry had nothing whatever to do with politics. He wrote privately to Brooke that, in his opinion, one form of despotism would not be materially better than the other, and if it were Jackson against the anti-Masons it would be difficult for him to make a choice. Thus the opposition was divided and Clay lost much in many states which he might otherwise have » Colton, Vol. V, p. 463. 204 HENRY CLAY carried with ease. The bank entered the campaign with pamphlets and circulars in its own behalf. To reasoning men such an educational process com- mended itself warmly, but the "old hero" in a death grapple with the "monster monopoly" was a pleasing picture to the unlettered masses. Instead of " Clay's rags," as the bank-notes were called, they were promised hard money. The ' ' corrupt bargain ' ' was brought out to do duty again ; indeed, it had nev T er been withdrawn from service. The defeat which Clay suffered was overwhelming. Of 288 electoral votes only forty- nine were for him, — those of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Delaware and five votes in Maryland. The popular vote was 707,217 for Jackson, 328,561 for Clay, and 254,720 for William Wirt, the anti- Masonic candidate. That Mr. Clay's discouragement was great as he surveyed the scene is attested in a letter to his friend Brooke under date of January 17, 1833, when he said : " As to politics, we have no past or future. After forty-four years of existence under the present Constitution, what single principle is fixed? The bank ? No. Internal improvements % No. The tariff? No. Who is to interpret the Constitution ? We are as much afloat at sea as the day when the Constitution went into operation. There is nothing- certain, but that the will of Andrew Jackson is to govern, and that will fluctuates with the change of every pen which gives expression to it." 1 The election did nothing to pacify the South Carolinians, who felt that they had as little to gain from Jackson as from Clay. They had voted for 1 Private Correspondence, p. 347. NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 205 neither one nor the other. Their electoral votes were cast for Governor John Floyd of Virginia, in whom they saw friendship for their particular views as to state sovereignty. It was clearly discerned that they would press their doctrine that the tariff law enacted at the last session of Congress, and signed by the President, was not binding upon them, and very likely by violent means. All the members returned to the second session of the Twenty-second Congress with the conviction that a national crisis was at hand. The legislature of South Carolina in October had called a convention to meet in the next month, and this body formally declared the tariff laws of the United States void and of no effect in that state. Methods of enforcing the extraordinary resolve were prescribed. The date set for this defiance of the Federal govern- ment was February, 1833. ' It was confidently be- lieved by Calhoun and his friends that the announce- ment of their policy would awaken a sympathetic response in other parts of the South, as this state's course in 1860 actually did. But the time was not yet ripe for it. Even in South Carolina itself com- plete unanimity of sentiment lacked, 2 and those who rode forward, under Calhoun's lead, were not a little afraid that they had gone too gaily out to the fray, especially when they read Jackson's proclam a tion of December 10th. It combined fatherly appeal with substantial threats, which left no room for doubt that, if necessary, the "old hero" himself would invade South Carolina, as he had invaded 1 All faithfully described in Hunt's Calhoun, p, 149 et 8eq, 2 Ibid,, p. 171 et seq. 206 HENKY CLAY Florida, to chastise the Seininoles. He made short work of all of Calhoun's labored metaphysical speculations about nullification. " The Constitu- tion of the United States forms a government not a league," he said, "and whether it be formed by a compact between the states or in any other manner, its character is the same. ... I consider the power to annul a law of the United States incompat- ible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthor- ized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed. . . . Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity of giving power to make laws and another power to resist them. To say that- any state may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States are not a nation." While the South Carolina manifestoes produced almost no enthusiasm in other states, Jackson's proclamation nearly everywhere met with warm re- sponse. Calhoun saw that he was face to face with a difficult situation. That he would be needed upon the floor of the Senate he very well understood, so Hayne stepped out to make a place for him, and he resigned the Vice-President's chair. Military meas- ures looking to the state's defense were adopted by the people, and Calhoun's journey to Washington was dramatic. As they crowded to see him pass, some, with Jackson's words ringing in their ears, must have doubted whether he would come back alive. In this emergency there was need of accommoda- NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 207 tion by compromise. If it were not effected, none could certainly foretell the result. On both sides, despite au appearance of great earnestness, there were movements looking toward a retreat from the advanced ground which each had come to occupy. The " American system" must suffer on the one hand, and the so-called right of nullification on the other. Soon after Christmas, the House of Rep re sentatives received a compromise tariff bill from the Committee on Ways and Means. The same Con- gress which less than six months before was ready to increase the duties to almost any height, upon the demand of the protectionists of the North and West, was now ready to sweep them away. The new House bill contemplated reducing them to the level of 1816, when the system of favoring native indus- tries through the tariff was begun. This plan might have succeeded but for South Carolina's counter measures, following Jackson's proclamation. u Old Hickory" was aroused now, as he had not been before, and on January 16th he laid before Congress in a special message the infor- mation which he had received concerning the atti- tude of the nullifiers. He asked for additional authority wherewith to enforce the revenue laws. He announced privately that he had put himself into communication with the Unionists of South Caro- lina, and if Congress did not support him, he would march 200,000 men into the state upon hearing of any violent step taken to carry the nullification measures into effect. 1 Congress, however, was not unmindful of Jackson's recommendations on such a ■ Hunt, Calhoun, pp. 178-179. 208 HENBY CLAY subject and it at once brought forward a measure known to the South Carolinians as the " Bloody Bill." It should be called, said Kepresentative Mc- Duffie upon one occasion, in the House, " an act to subvert the sovereignty of the states of this Union, to establish a consolidated government without lim- itation of powers, and to make the civil subordinate to the military power." The Senate continued to debate this Force Bill and the House the Tariff Bill, and there was no im- mediate prospect of any understanding being arrived at as late as on February 11th, only three weeks be- fore the life of the Twenty-second Congress would expire. South Carolina had meanwhile set forward the date upon which she would put Calhoun's theory into operation, and her great leader in the Senate continued to argue his points with much ability ; he gave signs of yielding nothing of his faith in his peculiar view of the nature of the Union established under the Constitution. Clay found no pleasure in surveying the scene. His friend, Senator John M. Clayton, of Delaware, looking upon the troubled faces of the South Caro- lina delegation in Congress, said one day : " Clay, these are fine fellows. It won't do to let old Jack- son hang them. We must save them." On Janu- ary 17th Clay was trying to evolve some plan of settlement. He had not yet matured it, and was not very hopeful of achieving anything. On that date he wrote his friend Brooke : " Any plan that I might offer would be instantly opposed, because I offered it. Sometimes I have thought that, consid- ering how I have been and still am treated by both NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 209 parties [the tariff and the anti-tariff] I would leave them to fight it out as well as they can. The lin- gering hopes for my country prevail over these feel- ings of a just resentment, and my judgment tells me that, disregarding them, I ought to the last to en- deavor to do what I can to preserve its institutions, and reestablish confidence and concord." 1 It is said that in the next following days Clay and Calhoun had a number of conferences, 2 in which they mutually agreed upon a plan of action. Clay meanwhile had also consulted with a number of Pennsylvania and other manufacturers, as to the course which he was about to adopt. He told them that if they did not accede to some modifications now, they would very probably have changes forced upon them by the next Congress, already elected and of known hostility to the " American system." These considerations, coupled with knowledge of the state of affairs in South Carolina, presented to them by one whom they esteemed and trusted as a particular friend, were effective in winning them over to his point of view. On February 11th Mr. Clay gave notice to the Senate that he should on the following day " ask leave to introduce a bill to modify the various acts im- posing duties on imports." 3 Agreeable to this announcement, on Tuesday, February 12th, Mr. Clay rose in the Senate, presented his bill and spoke upon the subject at length. His general plan called for a tariff of twenty per cent, ad valorem upon ar- 1 Private Correspondence, p. 347. 2 John Quincy Adams, Memoirs. Vol. VIII, p. 524. 3 Gales and Seaton's Register, Vol. IX, Part 1, p. 431. 210 HENRY CLAY tides which were subject to duty at all. Where the duties now exceeded this amount, they were to be reduced one-tenth every second year until 1841. Then one- half the remaining excess was to be taken off, and in 1842 the rest of the excess, bringing the rales down to the general ad valorem level. By this gradual method it was believed that the manufac- turers could and would accommodate themselves to lower duties. If, after the nine years had passed, they felt that they could not, Mr. Clay thought that redress might be hopefully sought from " posterity." His language and manner, as befitted the occa- sion, were conciliatory upon the subject of South Carolina, as well as in reference to the protective system, which seemed to be almost apart of his own fibre. He wanted harmony, he said eloquently at one point in his speech. "I wish to see the resto- ration of those ties which have carried us trium- phantly through two wars. I delight not in this perpetual turmoil. Let us have peace and become once more united as a band of brothers." He be- lieved that he understood South Carolina a little bet- ter since he had returned to Congress for the present session. She disclaimed the intention of employing force in the attainment of her objects. Her pur- poses were of a civil nature. She thought that she could " oust the United States from her limits " by a "law suit." He had no belief in the success of any such contention. The state had been "rash, intemperate and greatly in error," and had "made up an issue unworthy of her." She was merely do- ing, however, with more rashness what some other states had attempted to do. He did not fail to draw NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 211 a picture of what South Carolina's situation would be, if she were an independent state, and it was one little calculated to attract her to her liberty. Ris- ing to another height he exclaimed : " If there be any who want civil war, who want to see the blood of any portion of our countrymen spilt, I am not one of them ; I wish to see war of no kind ; but above all do I not desire to see a civil war. When war begins, whether civil or foreign, no human foresight is competent to foresee when, or how, or where it is to terminate. But when a civil war shall be lighted up in the bosom of our own happy land, and armies are marching, and commanders are winning their victories, and fleets are in motion on our coast, tell me, if you can, tell me, if any human being can tell, its duration. God alone knows where such a war will end. In what state will be left our institutions? In what state our liberties ! I want no war j above all, no war at home.'' . Though South Carolina were rash, he did not wish * ' to disgrace her, nor any other member of this Union." He did not desire "to see dimmed the lustre of one single star of that glorious confederacy which constitutes our political sun ; still less do I wish to see it blotted out and its light obliterated forever." He asked the senators to look for one moment beyond considerations of party, give their attention to this bill, and " heal before they are yet bleeding the wounds of our distracted country." ! After a few other speakers had briefly presented their views, Calhoun rose in his place and expressed 1 Gales and Seafcon's Register \ p. 471. 212 HENEY CLAY his approval of the object and terms of the bill, whereupon there was ' ' tumultuous approbation ' ' in the galleries. The chair indeed ordered them to be cleared, but upon an expression of disapproval by one or two members, this direction was with- drawn and the crowd of spectators remained, fol- lowing the course of events with grave and attentive interest. Calhoun spoke at great length on the 15th. Webster replied, and the opposite views of the nature of the Constitution were again set forth in extenso. Webster, however, condemned the Com- promise because it sacrificed the tariff, to which his section was now very much devoted, 1 and Clay spoke again on February 25th with the hope of reconcil- ing the protectionists to the measure. In the ardor of the moment he probably said more in favor of the protective character of the scheme than he could well substantiate. It was only his great power, as a leader among the tariff men, that made the bill for a gradual reduction of duties in any way savory, and he now spoke with all the vehemence and fas- cination which he so well knew how to command. He returned to the immediate need of propitiating the South, if peace were to be maintained. He again deplored civil war and did not hesitate to allude to the augmented fear which he would feel regarding it, were it conducted by Andrew Jack- son. " In the midst of magazines," he asked, " who knows when the fatal spark may produce a terrible explosion ? The battle once begun, where is its limit 1 What latitude will circumscribe its rage ? 1 Lodge, Webster, pp. 213, 218 et seq. NULLIFICATION AND COMPEOMISE 213 Who is to command our armies ? When, and where, and how is the war to cease ? In what con- dition will the peace leave the ' American system,' the American Union and what is more than all, American liberty ? I cannot profess to have a con- fidence, which I have not, in this administration, but, if I had all confidence in it, I should still wish to pause and, if possible by any honorable adjust- ment, to prevent awful consequences, the extent of which no human wisdom can foresee." The " enforcing bill " should not be passed alone ; it must be accompanied by " the bill of peace." He continued : "The difference between the friends and the foes of the Compromise, under consideration, is that they would in the enforcing act send forth alone a flaming sword. We would send out that also, but along with it the olive branch, as a messenger of peace. They cry out, ( The law ! the law ! the law ! Power ! Power ! Power ! ' We too reverence the law, and bow to the supremacy of its obligations, but we are in favor of the law, executed in mild- ness, and of power tempered with mercy. They, as we think, would hazard a civil commotion, begin- ning in South Carolina and extending God only knows where. While we would vindicate the Fed- eral government, we are for peace, if possible, union and liberty. We want no war, above all, no civil war, no family strife. We want to see no sacked cities, no desolated fields, no smoking ruins, no streams of American blood shed by American nrms." He was charged with ambition. He had none, 214 HENRY CLAY 44 1 am no candidate for any office in the gift of the people of these states, united or separated ; I never wish, never expect to be. Pass this bill, tranquil- ize the country, restore confidence and affection in the Union, and I am willing to go home to ' Ash- land' and renounce public service forever. I should there find in its groves, under its shades, on its lawns, amid my flocks and herds, in the bosom of my family, sincerity and truth, attachment, and fidelity, and gratitude which I have not always found in the walks of public life. Yes, I have am- bition ; but it is the ambition of being the humble instrument in the hands of Providence to reconcile a divided people ; once more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted land — the pleasing ambi- tion of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosperous and fraternal people." Thus did Clay allay and pacify opposition ; thus did he " draw the lightning from all the clouds which were lowering over the country." 1 The Force Bill and the Tariff Bill were passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President. To Clay's own friends, if not to all others, it seemed as though he had won "the imperishable glory of preventing civil war." a James Madison wrote, complimenting him in the warmest terms. The old Virginia sage hoped that in the period of nine or ten years allowed to the manufacturers under the Com- promise that they would learn ' ' to swim without the bladders which have supported them," and that such a situation would never arise again. Never- I 1 Nicholas Biddle to Clay, February 28, 1833. 3 Private Correspondence, p. 350. NULLIFICATION AND COMPROMISE 215 theless, he was not in any way pleased with the outlook. He foresaw what in the fulness of time came to pass. It was "painful" for him to con- sider the signs of a " permanent incompatibility and even hostility of interests between the South and the North," and the " contagious zeal in vindicating and varnishing the doctrine of nullification and se- cession ; the tendency of all of which, whatever be the intention, is to create a disgust with the Union and then to open the way out of it." He foresaw that the tariff would make way for slavery as a sub- ject of discord. " What madness in the South," said he, " to look for greater safety in disunion ! It would be worse than jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire from a fear of the frying-pan." ] Some- thing akin to this did it indeed prove to be years after Mr. Madison's and Mr. Clay's voices were heard no longer in the land. 1 Private Correspondence, pp. 359, 365. CHAPTEE IX THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON The importance of Clay's service as a pacificator in the great sectional difference of 1833 seemed at the time immense. Nearly everywhere, except in South Carolina, his interposition was deeply appre- ciated. It was believed that he had prevented a civil war which, with Jackson at its head, would have been not only sanguinary, but also destructive of the character of the government. Clay himself lived to doubt the value of his interference, espe- cially as Calhoun upon going home disseminated the view that nullification had proven to be all that he had ever claimed for it. It had been South Caro- lina's remedy against the Federal government on a subject of oppression and the people of the state seemed to press it still closer to their hearts. Now that the Civil War has come and gone, and we are enabled to view the history of the time in sober perspective, it seems clear that the lesson to the South might much better have been administered thus early in the development of the spirit of dis- union and separation. The experience then might have been quite as salutary, with the expenditure of much less blood and treasure ; yet slavery would have remained. That was the real ground of dif- ference, though men like Madison, Clay and Jack- son could not perceive it, if indeed did any one. THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 217 The tariff was but a symptom of economic disorders which had not yet been correctly diagnosed. Up to the day of the battle of Bull Run, and in- deed for a year or two afterward, what would most men not have given for some basis of conciliation, understanding and peace f It is only by compre- hending how great was the desire to avoid a clash between the states, and upon what proper senti- ments it was founded, that we can conceive of the importance which a service like Clay's assumed in the public mind. Though the gradually falling tariff was displeas- ing to the manufacturers, they soon became recon- ciled to their situation. Pel eg Sprague wrote to Clay on March 19th that in six months' time the Compromise would be considered in New England "as the most wise, patriotic, beneficent and splen- did act of legislation that any individual in this country has ever achieved." x Abbott Lawrence expressed a similar view, and Webster himself soon forgave Clay for opposing him. Their cordial re- lations, indeed, had never been interrupted and they were the firmest of friends. Upon his return to " Ashland," after the close of the arduous session, Clay immediately occupied himself with his farming interests, now almost entirely confined ' ' to the rearing of all kinds of live-stock." He wrote his friend Brooke that he had in his stables and fields "the Maltese ass, the Arabian horse, the Merino and Saxe Merino sheep, the English Here- ford and Durham cattle, the goat, the mule and the hog." He enjoyed them all. "The progress of 1 Private Correspondence, p. 354. 218 HEXEY CLAY these animals from their infancy to maturity/ ' he continued, "presents a constantly varying subject of interest, and I never go out of my house without meeting with some of theni to engage agreeably my attention. Then our fine greensward, our natural parks, our beautiful undulating country, every- where exhibiting combinations of grass and trees, or luxuriant crops, — all conspire to render home delightful." ! His land bill, which had passed the Senate twice and the House once, having been the subject of a pocket veto by Jackson, after the adjournment of Congress, still occupied his mind. But for this, he wrote Brooke that he " certainly" would resign his seat in the Senate. He had no wish for place. Nothing was "so abhorrent" to his feelings as to appear to be "a teasing suppliant for office." The President's position was "full of care and vexa- tion." It could have " no charms " for him, unless it should come as a result of " the willing suffrages of a large majority of his countrymen." It could not come in this way now. He doubted much whether "any successful opposition" could be made against "General Jackson's designated suc- cessor." He had not been treated well and had " borne the taunts of the Jackson party and prin- ciples long enough." "What," he asked, "can one man do alone against a host f " He was "worn out and exhausted in the service." He wished and needed "repose." In a letter to Brooke a few months later he con- tinued to express despairing views. The country 1 Private Correspondence, p. 361. THE WAK AGAINST JACKSON 219 was governed " pretty much by the will of one man." "If that single man," said he, " were an enlightened philosopher, and a true patriot, the popular sanction which is given to all his acts, however inconsistent or extravagant, might find some justification. But when we consider that he is ignorant, passionate, hypocritical, corrupt and easily swayed by the base men who surround hiiu, what can we think of the popular approbation which he receives?" One thing only was wanted to complete the public degradation, and that was 1 i that he should name his successor. . . . His election once secured, the corrupt means of preserv- ing and perpetuating power, now in successful oper- ation at Albany, will be transferred to Washington. And there we shall have a state of things which will prepare the public mind for a dissolution of the Union, to which, unfortunately, there is less aver- sion now than could be wished by those who love their country. I hope that I may be deceived in these predictions ; but I fear I will not." ' But these were unhappy moods which came upon him at " Ashland," when out of sight and hearing of that legion of friends whose devotion excelled any ever accorded to a public man in America. He had contemplated a trip in the summer to New England, by way of Niagara Falls and the Canadian cities of the St. Lawrence, which he had never seen. He was obliged to postpone hivS departure until the autumn, however, and then changed his course so that he both went and came by New York City. Though he sought to travel in 1 Private Correspondence, pp. 368-369. 220 HENRY CLAY privacy, this, as usual, was uot to be his fate. "His whole route," says a contemporary biographer 1 11 was like the movement of some mighty conqueror — almost one unbroken triumphal procession." In New York a large company of prominent citi- zens on horseback escorted him to his lodgings. The Governor's Room in the City Hall was put at his disposal. There he received all sorts and condi- tions of men who came to pay their respects. In New England, shops and factories were closed, so that all classes of the people could go out to see and welcome him. Silver pitchers and other testimoni- als of affection were presented. " I was taken into custody," he said in one of his many speeches during the progress of the journey, " made captive of, but placed withal in such delightful bondage that I could find no strength and no desire to break away from it." He reached Washington in time for the opening of the session, when he could write to Judge Brooke : " My journey was full of gratifica- tion. In spite of ray constant protestations that it was undertaken with objects of a private nature ex- clusively, and my uniformly declining public din- ners, the people everywhere, and at most places without discrimination of parties, took possession of me and gave enthusiastic demonstrations of respect, attachment and confidence. In looking back on the scenes through which I passed, they seem to me to have resembled those of enchantment more than of real life. ' y The first question to confront the Senate of the new Congress was a message from Jackson concern- 1 Mallory, Vol. I, p. 65. THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 221 ing the land bill which he had pocketed in March. This was entirely gratuitous. It was another Con- gress and the bill was dead, but the President wished to fling the " carcass " 1 at Clay's feet. It was vain to say that Jackson himself had asked for the pas- sage of a land bill. He did not want it now ; in inany ways this one did not conform to his wishes. It only remained for Clay to say that to withhold the veto until this time was arbitrary, unconstitutional and despotic, and that he would on the following Tuesday ask leave to introduce a new bill with similar purposes in view. This question was wholly dwarfed, however, by the sudden and surprising resolution of the Presi- dent to remove the government deposits from the United States Bank, and accomplish the ruin of the " monster," as he persisted in denominating and regarding it. Incidentally, he would disturb, if he did not paralyze, credit and trade, but this was nothing in comparison with the pleasure of executing his dear purpose in relation to a hated establishment. The storm broke at once. In his message to Congress in 1832 Jackson had ques- tioned the safety of the government moneys in the hands of the bank and its branches, and the House had ordered an examination. By a vote of 109 to 46 it was determined that there was no ground whatever for alarm. Jackson went ahead without regard to this opinion. He had resolved to take the deposits away from the bank, and to ruin it. His only course was through the Secretary of the Treasury, who was clothed with the right to decide 1 ColtoD, Vol. V, p. 570. 222 HENKY CLAY where the deposits were to be placed. In May, 1833, he reconstructed his cabinet with this object in view, transferring McLane, known to favor the bank, to the Department of State, and putting at the head of the Treasury William J. Duane, of Philadelphia, the sou of the well-kuowu editor of the Aurora, the vitriolic newspaper which had been so powerful in the work of driving the Federalists out of office in 1801. It was believed that he would be a willing tool, though Jackson erred in his judg- ment completely. So extraordinary, indeed revo- lutionary, did the suggestion seem to be that Duane refused to obey the order when Jackson sent it to him. Nor would he resign. If he were to go, it would be by removal from office, which was promptly effected by the President who, late in September, 1833, transferred Eoger B. Taney from the Attorney -Generalship to the Treasury Depart- ment. Taney complied at once. Nearly $10,000,000 were in the bank, and when these funds were with- drawn, no more were to be deposited to replace them. The public money henceforth, at the Secretary's dis- cretion, was to be put in state banks, soon known therefore as "pet banks." The fiscal affairs of the country were immediately thrown into great excitement, and the condition of the stock and money markets approached a panic. The papers bearing upon this unusual procedure came into the Twenty-third Congress at its opening and the three leaders of the Senate, Clay, Webster and Calhoun, were on duty, side by side, ready to oppose Jack- son with all their resources and abilities. It was THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 223 one of the most remarkable sessions of Congress which the country has ever seen. The public crowded the galleries as though it were a play. Such oratory, such parliamentary finesse, such clever retort and debate had not been heard before in any legislative hall in America. Mr. Clay opened the fire upon the President on December 10th, asking him to lay before the Senate a paper concerning the removal of the deposits, which led Jackson to reply that it was no affair of the Senate ; his responsibility was to the people. It was December 26th before Clay's artillery was fully charged. Then he introduced two resolutions as follows : " Resolved, that by dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury because he would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, remove the money of the United States in deposit with the Bank of the United States and its branches in conformity with the President's opinion, and by appointing his successor to effect such removal, which has been done, the President has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States, not granted to him by the Constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people. " Resolved, that the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the money of the United States, deposited in the Bank of the United States and its branches, communicated to Congress on the 3d of December, 1833, are un- satisfactory and insufficient." Clay followed the introduction of these resolutions with a speech which was in his most effective 224 HENRY CLAY manner. It continued for two days, and rang up and down the Capitol, soon to reverberate through all the land. He wasted no time in going about the work in hand, for these were the words with which he began : ' l We are in the midst of a revolution hitherto bloodless, but rapidly tending toward a total change of the pure republican character of the government and to the concentration of all power in the hands of one man." His arraignment was strong and impressive. That Jackson had usurped authority, strained the provisions of the Constitution, consulted his own will only in regard to great public matters, and defied the legislature and other coordinate branches of the government, needed no particular demon- stration. Though he still could do no wrong in the view of vast numbers of the people, Clay did not hesitate on this account. Some hyperbole may seem to lurk in the words with which he closed his remarkable second day's speech, but they were spoken with absolute sincerity, and they seemed to be the natural climax of his argument. "We behold," he said, "the usual incidents of approaching tyranny. The land is filled with spies and informers ; and detraction and denunciation are the orders of the day. People, especially official incumbents in this place, no longer dare to speak in the fearless tones of manly freedom, but in the cautious whispers of trembling slaves. The premonitory symptoms of despotism are upon us, and if Congress do not apply an instantaneous and effective remedy, the fatal collapse will soon come THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 225 on and we shall die, base, mean and abject slaves — the scorn and contempt of mankind — unpitied, unwept, unmourned. ' ' The distress occasioned among business men by the removal of the deposits, and a political war upon the country's most powerful fiscal agency was real. Any intelligent Executive, properly sensitive to the consequences of his actions, could not have adopted such a policy. But a rare bigot when once animated to any course, and with a determination to enforce his commands, borrowed from the battle-field, the only experience in which his life had been rich, Jackson went forward without regard for the fact that the bank was performing all its functions in an honest and effectual way ; that no other agency was at hand to fill its place ; and that interference with its operations would bring evil, if not ruin, to multi- tudes of people. They sent their petitions to Congress day after day, and Clay and Webster with great solemnity and eloquence presented them in the Senate. One of the most remarkable scenes of the session was witnessed on March 7, 1834, when in bringing forward a memorial of a number of sufferers in Philadelphia, Clay addressed himself directly to Jackson's favorite and chosen legatee who, as Vice- President, was the presiding officer of the Senate. So earnest did the orator become that he quite un- consciously, it is said, left his place, still speaking in the most impassioned way, with all the effective gestures that accompanied his delivery, till he stood directly before the Vice-President's desk, where he continued his entreaties. "By your official and 226 HENRY CLAY personal relations with the President," said Clay, "you maintain with him an intercourse which I neither enjoy nor covet. Go to him and tell him, without exaggeration but in the language of truth and sincerity, the actual condition of his bleeding country. Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone by the measures which he has been induced to put in operation. Tell him that his experiment is operating on the nation like the philosopher's ex- periment upon a convulsed animal in an exhausted receiver, and that it must expire in agony if he does not pause, give it free and sound circulation, and suffer the energies of the people to be revived and restored. . . . Depict to him, if you can find language to portray, the heartrending wretch- edness of thousands of the working classes cast out of employment. Tell him of the tears of helpless widows, no longer able to earn their bread ; and of unclad and unfed orphans who have been thrown by his policy out of the busy pursuits in which but yesterday they were gaining an honest liveli- hood. . . . Tell him to guard himself against the possibility of an odious comparison, with that worst of the Roman emperors who, contemplating with indifference the conflagration of the mistress of the world, regaled himself during the terrific scene in the throng of his dancing courtiers. . . . Entreat him to pause and to reflect that there is a point beyond which human endurance cannot go ; and let him not drive this brave, generous and patriotic people to madness and despair." Thus did Clay pour out a fire that seemed to come from his very soul. He knew that he had left the THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 227 " beaten track" of debate; his apology must be found in " the anxious solicitude which I feel for the condition of the country." He hoped that he had touched the Vice-President's heart and excited iu him " a glow of patriotism." How successful he had been he soon learned when at the couclusiou of the speech, the " old fox," who had been looking at Clay as though he were absorbing every word in order to have it in hand to carry to his chief, called another to the chair, and going down upon the floor gravely asked Clay for a pinch of his fine Maccaboy snuff, whereupon, having received it, he quite as gravely walked away. Of course, nothing at all came of this impassioned appeal ; though at a pub- lic meeting in Philadelphia it was resolved " that Martin Van Buren deserves and will receive the execration of all good men should he shirk from the responsibility of carrying to Andrew Jackson the message sent by the Honorable Henry Clay." On March 28th Clay's resolutions with some im- material amendments were passed : that by which the President was accused of an unconstitutional act, by a vote of twenty -six to twenty ; the other by which the reasons given for the removal of the de- posits were declared to be " unsatisfactory and in- sufficient," by a vote of twenty- eight to eighteen. A joint resolution offered by Clay, directing a restoration of the deposits to the Bank of the United States, also passed the Senate, though it failed in the House which was in control of the Jackson men. There was now war to the knife, between the President and the Senate. In response to Clay's resolutions of censure, Jackson sent a " protest" 228 HENRY CLAY which he demanded should be entered upon the j ournal of the Senate. That body refused to receive it, denying such a right on the part of the Presi- dent. Sixteen senators voted to enter the ' ' pro- test," while twenty-seven voted not to do so, after three weeks of fierce debate with Clay, Webster and Calhoun on one side, and Benton leading on the other in Jackson's defense. The President was roundly denounced for usurpations of office in not forwarding the nomination of Taney, whom he had chosen to do his bidding in reference to the removal of the deposits, after two other secretaries had re- fused. He knew, of course, that it would be re- jected. The Senate refused to confirm the names of four men appointed directors of the United States Bank. Jackson returned them with a scolding, and the Senate refused again. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, was nominated for Minister to England. The name was rejected by the Senate. In the sum- mer of 1834 Taney's name finally arrived ; it was, of course, voted down, as expected, an act which furiously enraged Jackson, who was nevertheless obliged to appoint Levi Woodbury in his place, and hold Taney for a vacancy on the Supreme Bench. The session ended with no net gain except a fanfare of oratory, and the conviction which promptly 'settled upon the country that Jackson had made an end of the bank. Business might, as soon as it could, accommodate itself to the new con- ditions under which it must operate, and this it proceeded to do with more success than Clay or any THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 229 of his friends had thought possible when they so vigorously denounced the action of the President. In the elections of 1834 a considerable accession to the an ti- Jackson strength was seen. It was in this year that Clay in Congress gave his party the name which ever afterward attached to it. He called himself and his followers Whigs, likening them to the Whigs of England, " the champions of liberty, the friends of the people'' ; while upon his op- ponents he attempted, though unsuccessfully, to fasten the name of Tories, "supporters of execu- tive power, of royal prerogative, of the maxim that the king could do no wrong, of the detestable doc- trines of passive obedience and non-resistance," recalling the much hated element in the American population during the Eevolutionary War. 1 With the passing of conditions of distress in the business world, however, the "hero" seemed greater than ever before. Clay could say that the evils suffered in business circles were not so endur- ing as he had once feared and supposed, but he could insist that Jackson's course was no less high- handed and in violation of constitutional authority. Little enough did the hordes which "Old Hick- ory" led care about the Constitution. The bank, broken on the wheel of his iron will, seemed to the masses, from whom his strength was recruited, the odious monopoly which he declared it to be, and he emerged in victory. Mr. Clay was soon called upon to subordinate all partisan reflections, to subdue his feelings, as much outraged as they had been, to the work of extri- 1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 629. 230 HENKY CLAY eating the country from a critical situation on a foreign question, into which it had been brought by Jackson's hot impulses. France by a treaty signed in Paris on July 4, 1831, had agreed to pay the United States $5,000,000 to indemnify the nation for damages sustained by its shipping during the wars of Napoleon. The first instalment was due, and should have been paid on February 2, 1S33, but the French parliament failed to make any pro vision for it, and it was suggested to Jackson that he refer to the matter in his annual message to Congress in 1834. This he did in language which he would have employed in his dealings with Henry Clay, Nicholas Biddle or William J. Duane. He recommended to Congress that "a law be passed authorizing reprisals upon French property, in case provision shall not be made for the payment of the debt at the approaching session of the French Chambers." These were the words of one mani- festly inexperienced in diplomacy and they were well calculated to cause grave offense. When the mails carried the news to Europe the French government, in response to popular clamor, recalled its minister at Washington, and gave our representative in Paris his conge, at once making the situation one of much gravity. Clearly something must be done and attention was again turned to Clay. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Eelations in the Senate, he took up the recommend- ations of the message, and it was his task, while in a measure supporting the President and preserving the national amour propre, to propitiate France, which clearly had aright to better treatment, if there THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 231 were to be a continuance of good feeling between the two powers. The breach was delicately ap- proached, and further rupture avoided by the re- port of Clay's committee, which offered the following resolution to the Senate : "Resolved, that it is inexpedient at this time to pass any law vesting in the President authority for making reprisals upon French property, in the con- tingency of provision not being made for paying to the United States the indemnity stipulated by the treaty of 1831, during the present session of the French Chambers." He did not enter upon any defense of Jackson for his indiscreet language ; that he could not do. Yet he refrained from the energetic denunciation which such action might have been held to deserve, and would have received, no doubt, had it involved only the nation' s domestic concerns. With slight changes of phraseology, the resolution passed the Senate by a unanimous vote, and the object was accomplished. The French legislative chambers were mollified and after a few characteristic passages, which in 1836 again seemed to point to war, the money was paid and the trouble came to an end. There was an echo of the sentiments which Mr. Clay had expressed in 1819 on the subject of the Seminole War, and at other times in reference to the Indians, in what it was his pleasure to say in February, 1835, in presenting a memorial to the Sen- ate on behalf of the Cherokees of Georgia. He was again "the Great Commoner,' 7 with an awakened sympathy for the downtrodden and oppressed. In Georgia Indians had been driven from their lands, 232 HENKY CLAY and it was asked that aid be given to enable them to remove beyond the Mississippi. It was a severe indictment of the state of Georgia for robbing the aborigines of their lands, in viola- tion of solemn treaty provisions, iterated and often confirmed, into which Clay courageously launched. No fear of giving offense deterred him when he saw a wrong to be denounced. The Indians, he said, were a part of the human race, " as capable of pleas- ure and pain, and invested with as indisputable a right, as we have, to judge of and pursue their hap- piness. Thrust out from human society, without the sympathies of any, and placed without the pale of common justice, who is there to protect him, or to defend his rights ! " u It is said," he continued, ' * that annihilation is the destiny of the Indian race. Perhaps it is, judging from the past. But shall we therefore hasten it ? Death is the irreversible decree pronounced against the human race. Shall we ac- celerate its approach, because it is inevitable f No, sir. Let us treat with the utmost kindness, and the most perfect justice the aborigines whom Providence has committed to our guardianship. Let us confer upon them, if we can, the inestimable blessings of Christianity and civilization, and then, if they must sink beneath the progressive wave of civilized pop- ulation, we are free from all reproach and stand ac- quitted in the sight of God and man." ! Such sentiments, noble as they were, seemed like empty rhetoric to most men, and they were unhap- pily without influence in altering the policy toward the Indians. •Colton, Vol. V, p. 655. THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 233 An opportunity for the continuation of the cam- paign against Jackson, while at the same time dis- cussing a vital public question, was found in Febru- ary, 1835, when an effort was put forth to curb the President in the baneful practice of removing faith- ful men from office to make places for his partisans. Clay was glad to return to the topic. He never ceased to denounce this mischievous change of pub- lic custom, and now in the Senate, with the support of most of the able leaders in that body — leaders who at the time were unsurpassed for their brilliant qual- ities— he attempted to show that the practice was as unconstitutional as it was inexpedient. The debate was concentrated around a bill to repeal a law of 1820, limiting the tenure of certain offices to a four- year term. Some of Jackson's firmest friends de- serted him upon this issue and the measure was passed in the Senate by a vote of thirty- one to six- teen. Again in the session of 1835-1836 Clay brought for- ward and spoke in advocacy of his plan for distrib- utiug among the states the proceeds of the sales of the public lands. He recalled that the issue had been forced upon him by the Jackson men in order to embarrass him as a presidential candidate in 1832. Under this impulse he had studied the ques- tion, and developed a policy to which he attached great value. A bill, embodying it, which had passed Congress near the end of the session in 1833 had been killed by Jackson in what seemed to many a wholly unconstitutional manner. Clay believed that if it had been returned with a veto by the President, it could have been passed over that 234 HENRY CLAY veto, and the states would now have been in the en- joyment of the money, which it was beneficently designed that they should use in behalf of internal improvements, education and the transportation to Africa of free negroes. Instead of this the national surplus was scattered about "in parcels amoug petty corporations.' ' It was "applied to increase the semi-annual dividends of favorite stockholders in favorite banks." 1 But the bill, though it was passed by the Senate, failed in the House where Jackson was still in power. Clay, in the eyes of the country at this time, seemed to be not so great and so preeminent a figure, as four years before. His party was devel- oping other leaders, and, though he did not envy them their distinction, it was a new sensation to hear others spoken of as suitable to direct it in the presidential campaign of 1836. After Clay's over- whelming defeat in 1832, many believed and said that another name should be put forward. A little surprised, not unnaturally, at the resourcefulness of a party which seemed to be of his own creation, too much can easily be made of this fact. That he was a seeker for the presidency is an assumption with which every biographer of Clay sets out, and Schurz's assertions at least are based upon only one letter in Colton's collection addressed to an un- known correspondent. 2 There is no reason to think that Mr. Clay had the least desire to be the Whig nominee in the hopeless contest which approached. 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 31. * Private Correspondence, p. 392. Written from "Ashland," July 14, 1835. THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 235 He knew full well, by sad experience, Jackson's strength with the people. He had for two or three years foreseen Van Buren's nomination and election with the corrupt support of the administration, and no one could have had a better right to discuss the respective chances of Daniel Webster, Judge Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, now in the Senate of the United States, lately turned against Jackson, whose warm friend he had earlier been, and General Wil- liam Henry Harrison, who had administered a famous defeat to a party of Indians at Tippecanoe in 1811, an " old hero " fit for a joust with Jack- son. The Whigs in truth were so disorganized that they went into the campaign without having held a national convention. It was their hope by support- ing men of strength in their respective sections to throw the election into the House of Representa- tives, and bring about a situation similar to that which had elevated John Quincy Adams to the presidency in 1824 ; but the plan which had Clay's approval, if indeed he were not the originator of it, failed, for Van Buren received 170 out of 294 elec- toral votes, a clear majority. Harrison secured seventy-three votes from Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. White carried Georgia and Jackson's own state, Tennessee ; Webster, Massachusetts ; while South Carolina instructed its eleven electors to vote for W. P. Mangum. To a man of Mr. Clay's disposition come fits of despondency, and at this time there was enough reason for one without believing that the choice of 236 HENRY CLAY other candidates by the Whigs in 1836 had anything materially to do with this state of his mind. The malignities of Jackson and his friends, now con- tinuously directed against Clay — he was the princi- pal object of them all — for nearly twelve years, were hard to bear, especially when they seemed to have the endorsement of the nation, in so far as this could be gauged by popular elections. Late in 1835 he lost his favorite and last surviving daughter, Mrs. Erwin. In June, 1836, James Madison, with whom Mr. Clay had always had the friendliest re- lations, died, and when he was not under some ex- citement, gloom was likely to possess his mind. Though he was to be reelected to the Senate by the legislature of Kentucky in the winter of 1836- 1837, Clay often spoke of retiring to private life which, however, he must have known that he could not sincerely enjoy. It has always been a resource of public men to retire to the homes whence they have come, but the exhilaration of directing public affairs is so great that, after many years in service of this kind, and especially in parliamentary leader- ship, such as it had been Clay's part to play, with- drawal cannot be viewed with real pleasure. There was truth in the letter which he wrote to a number of his admirers in New York in the summer of 1837 : " I have not for several years looked to the event of my being placed in the chair of Chief Magistrate as one that was probable. My feelings and inten- tions have taken a different direction. While I am not insensible to the exalted honor of filling the highest office within the gift of this great people, I have desired retirement from the cares of public THE WAR AGAINST JACKSON 237 life ; and, although I have not been able fully to gratify this wish, I am in the enjoyment of compara- tive repose and looking anxiously forward to more. I should be extremely unwilling, without very strong reasons, to be thrown into the turmoil of a presidential canvass. Above all, I am most de- sirous not to seem, as in truth I am not, importu- nate for any public office whatever. If I were per- suaded that a majority of my fellow citizens desired to place me in the highest executive office, that sense of duty by which I have ever been guided would exact obedience to their will. Candor obliges me, however, to say that I have not seen sufficient evidence that they entertain such a de- sire." * Mr. Clay's displeasure was complete, as his term of six years as a senator came to an end, and as Jackson stepped out, leaving his office to his desig- nated successor, amid great popular acclamation, on March 4, 1837. It was not diminished by the fact that the resolution of censure for assumptions of power, which Clay had introduced into the Senate, and which had been passed by a vote of twenty-six to twenty on March 28, 1834, had a little while be- fore been expunged from the journals. This re- markable procedure was taken under the leadership of Benton, Jackson's particular representative in the Senate, who soon after its passage had an- nounced his intention of making the motion. If it did not pass, he would repeat it again and again until Jackson should be freed of this imputation upon his honor and intelligence. Benton pursued 1 Private Correspondence, p. 417. 238 HENEY CLAY the subject with inflexible determination. At the second session of the Congress which had passed the resolution, the proposal was voted down decisively thirty-nine to seven. The fourth time he brought the matter before the Senate at the session of 1836- 1837, the Jackson men had at last gained a majority in that chamber. The legislatures of several states had instructed their senators to vote for the expung- ing resolution, and it became a national issue on the hustings and in the newspapers. Benton, on December 26, 1836, the anniversary of the day upon which Clay had moved the censure, again introduced the resolution with the knowledge that if he could hold Jackson's friends together, he would succeed. Benton himself had a wish to ob- literate the record, to stamp it out so that it could not be read. The senators upon whom he felt that he could rely were assembled at Boulanger's res- taurant, a famous place of resort in the Washington of the day, on the evening of January 14, 1837. The meeting lasted until after midnight. It was agreed that the resolution should be called up on the following Monday and that there should be no adjournment until it had passed. " Cold hams, turkeys, rounds of beef, pickles, wines and cups of hot coffee' ' were to be supplied to the faithful senators in a committee-room within convenient access to the Senate chamber. It was agreed among them that the record of the censure on the manuscript journal should have broad black lines drawn around it, while across its face in bold letters, were to be written the words—" Expunged by order of the Senate this 16th day of January, 1837." THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 239 Not much speech was indulged in by Benton and his friends, who wished to bring the resolution to a vote as soon as possible. But the three great lead- ers, Clay, Webster and Calhoun, must be heard. 1 While they foresaw the inevitable result, they had a duty to perform, and had no thought of surren- dering without vehement protest. Clay delivered in his august style an able discourse upon the sub- ject. He reviewed Jackson's extraordinary course in reference to the removal of the deposits from the bank. " I believed then in the truth of the resolu- tion," said Clay, " and I now in niy place and under all my responsibility re-avow my unshaken convic- tion of it. . . . I put it, Mr. President, to the calm and deliberate consideration of the majority of the Senate, are you ready to pronounce, in the face of this enlightened community, for all time to come, and whoever may happen to be President, that the Senate dare not, in language the most inoffensive and respect- ful, remonstrate against any executive usurpation, whatever may be its degree or danger ? For one I will not ; I cannot. I believe the resolution of March, 1834, to have been true ; and that it was competent to the Senate to proclaim the truth. And I solemnly believe that the Senate would have been culpably neglectful of its duty to itself, to the Constitution and to the country, if it had not announced the truth." He argued, too, conclusively, by reference to the experience of other legislative bodies, that a journal is a record of proceedings and that nothing which has taken place can be properly or truthfully de- 1 Meigs, Life of Benton, p. 230 et seq. 240 HENRY CLAY clared Dot to have taken place. " Are you not only destitute of all authority," he asked, "but posi- tively forbidden to do what the expunging resolu- tion proposes? The injunction of the Constitution to keep a journal of our proceedings is clear, ex- press and emphatic. . . . But I would ask if there were no constitutional requirement to keep a journal, what constitutional right has the Senate of this Congress to pass in judgment upon the Sen- ate of another Congress, and to expunge from its journal a deliberate act there recorded? Can an unconstitutional act of that Senate, supposing it to be so, justify you in performing another unconstitu- tional act?" It was a "dark deed," a "foul deed," of him who had come to exercise "uncontrolled the power of the state." " In one hand he holds the purse and in the other brandishes the sword of the country. Myriads of dependents and partisans, scattered over the land, are ever ready to sing hosannas to him, and to laud to the skies whatever he does. He has swept over the government, during the last eight years, like a tropical tornado. . . . What ob- ject of his ambition is unsatisfied? When disabled from age any longer to hold the sceptre of power, he designates his successor and transmits it to his fa- vorite. What more does he want ? Must we blot, deface and mutilate the records of the country to punish the presumptuousness of expressing an opinion contrary to his own?" " Can yoiAnake that not to be which has been ? " Clay continued in one of his finest bursts. "Can you eradicate from memory and from history the THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 241 fact that in March, 1831, a majority of the Senate of the United States passed the resolution which ex- cites your enmity ? Is it jour vain and wicked ob- ject to arrogate to yourselves that power of annihi- lating the past which has been denied to Omnipo- tence itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands into our hearts, and pluck out the deeply rooted convictions which are there ? Or is it your design merely to stigmatize us? You cannot stigmatize us : u c Ne'er yet did base dishonor blur our name.' Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude and bearing aloft the shield of the Constitution of our country, your puny efforts are impotent, and we defy all your power. Put the majority of 1834 in one scale, and that by which this expunging resolution is to be carried in the other, and let truth and justice, in Heaven above and on the earth be- low, and liberty and patriotism decide the pre- ponderance. 7 ' ' When the last gun had thundered, there were calls for a vote. It was then near midnight. The galleries were tightly packed with onlookers, while masses of people were wedged into the lobbies, and even invaded the floor itself. Benton, or his friends, pretended to think that he was in danger of his life. The truth is that the Jackson regime had bred such manners among the people that guns and bludgeons were in everyday use. The entire spirit of society, no less than that of the government, had been altered by one extraordinary man who had made 1 Colton, Vol. VI, pp. 58-59. 242 HENKY CLAY himself a kind of monarch over whom was thrown, curiously enough, a mantle of democracy. After the vote was taken and the Jackson men had won by twenty- four ayes to nineteen noes, Benton in- sisted that the black lines should be drawn around the resolution at once. There were groans and hisses in a portion of the galleries immediately above the head of the senator from Missouri. The chair was about to have them cleared when Benton, in his most dramatic manner, objected. He wished only the guilty to suffer ; he pointed to them, he saw them up there. They were the "bank ruf- fians," " subaltern wretches" he later called them. 1 They could no longer insult the Senate as in other days. They must be seized by the sergeant-at-arms and brought to the bar. Clay had said that if Jackson were "really the hero" which his friends represented him to be, he would "reject with scorn and contempt, as un- worthy of his fame, your black scratches and your baby lines in the fair records of his country." He, however, did nothing of the kind. He invited the " expungers " and their wives to a fine dinner. He met the company, but was too sick to sit at the table with them, his place being taken by Benton, the "head expunger," as the latter not inappro- priately describes himself, who was as happy as his chief. "That expurgation," Benton exclaims in his Thirty Years 1 View, 2 "it was the ' crowning mercy ? of his civil— as New Orleans had been of his military — life." s 1 Thirty Years' View, Vol. I, p. 731. 2 Ibid. 3 Meigs, pp. 239-241. THE WAE AGAINST JACKSON 243 day felt no quickening of his dejected spirits by reason of this act. " I shall hail with the greatest pleasure the occurrence of circumstances which will admit of my resignation without dishonor to my- self," he wrote to a friend just after the expunging resolution was passed. "The Senate is no longer a place for a decent man." To Brooke he wrote on February 10, 1837 : " You congratulate me on my acceptance of the new appointment recently conferred upon me by the Senate. I think you ought to have condoled and sympathized with me, because by the force of circumstances I was constrained to remain in a body in the humiliated condition in which the Senate now is. I shall escape from it as soon as I decently can, with the same pleasure that one would fly from a charnel house. ... In the month of March the Cumberland route offers ad- vantages so superior to any other that I must follow it to Kentucky. Would to God it w T ere for the last time!" 1 But there were some compensations. Assurances came to him of the continued love and admiration of those whose opinions were worthy to be prized. Chancellor Kent wrote from New York on February 20, 1837: "My sympathies, and judgment, and confidence, and patriotism, and grief, and indigna- tion are with you in every point, aud if I was in Washington, I would go directly up to you, and give your hand the hearty shake of sympathetic feeling. You have vindicated the resolution with irresistible force, and damned the other to everlast- ing fame." 1 Private Correspondence, pp. 410-411. CHAPTER X " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO " The business world had been bearing up in a creditable way under the uncertainty and disturb- ance created by the unusual financial policies of Jackson, and his eight years ended amid much popular acclamation. There was still some degree of prosperity when Van Buren was inaugurated. Panic, however, lay just ahead. The way had been prepared for sweeping wreck. Whim and igno- rance had been supreme in the management of the public finances, and the penalty would fall upon the entire country with swift justice. Apart from the destruction of the bank, and all the regular agencies of credit which it had estab- lished and under which business proceeded safely— in itself suificient to cause a panic,— there was a surplus distribution scheme of mischievous tenden- cies. For this Clay could not escape some responsi- bility, though it could be truthfully said that its enactment at such a time, in such a form, was not of his choice. It was nevertheless one feature of his public land bill to distribute the proceeds of the sales among the states for local uses, an idea not very different from that at the basis of a meas- ure which met the favor of the administration, as well as of the Whigs, and passed Congress in the " TIPPECANOE AND TYLEB, TOO'' 245 session of 1835-1836. l It provided that the surplus (reserving $5,000,000), concerning which there was a great ado, especially since it was to be carried about the country to be placed in favorite banks for the advantage of the dominant political party, should be ' ' deposited ' ' with the several states, according to their representation in Congress. Payment was to be made in four quarterly instalments, beginning on January 1, 1837. The law contemplated a return of the money at the call of Congress, but it was generally understood to be, as it proved, an out- right gift. One powerful motive with Clay and the Whigs, in their support of this plan, was a desire to get the public money out of the hands of the administration. It was, or could be made, they said, a dangerous engine to perpetuate the power of the party in office. The surplus, which had been so much on the minds of those who had opposed Clay's protective system during the recent discussions of the tariff question, still refused to grow less. It reached a total of more than $40,000,000 in 1836, and a mixture of considerations, including a curious deference to the state-rights view of the Union, impelled Congress to vote for the distribution scheme. As the 1st of January, 1837, the time for the first payment, approached, the banks in all parts of the country, which held government deposits, began to look about them for means to meet the call. The money was in the hands of institutions, a number of them essentially weak. The prize of government deposits had led to the establishment of many state 1 June 23, 1836, Statutes at Large, p. 52. 246 HENRY CLAY bauks which hoped to receive a share of these easy favors. They issued their paper money, lent out their credit, encouraged speculation. Now that the government needed the funds which had led the way to this season of reckless plenty, loans must be called in and further accommodations to borrowers denied. Jackson made the situation no better by a characteristic act of his own, his "specie circular." The sales of land to speculators were largely for the notes of state banks, in some cases of doubtful solvency. He wished Congress to provide that only gold and silver coin should be received at the land- offices, and failing to get such legislation he, in July, 1836, issued an order upon his own responsi- bility. This measure created a sudden demand for specie for exchanges in which paper money had hitherto been the medium. Coin was drawn from the East to the West, so that it might be paid to the government through the land-offices. The whole financial fabric was under stress and strain, and that it fell could have surprised no student of the polit- ical and economic situation. The first instalment of $9,367,000, due on Jan- uary 1, 1837, was successfully transferred from the deposit banks to the states. The second was paid, though not without difficulty, on April 1st. When the time for the third payment arrived, in July, the banks had broken down and business of all kinds, financial and mercantile, suffered general collapse. Fortunes in cotton, tobacco and iron, as well as in Western land, disappeared in a night. Bankruptcy stared all parts of the country in the face, and tens of thousands of wage-workers were " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 247 thrown into the streets. There was a general sus- pension of specie payments, and Van Buren saw that he had come into a legacy which was to be of far less value and honor than he had hoped. Euin was made the wilder by the uses to which the states applied the money they had received. They at once embarked upon ill-considered schemes of pub- lic works and increased the whirl of speculative excitement, which now ended in a general crash. The business community demanded immediate relief. It asked the President to rescind the specie circular. This he declined to do, but he was com- pelled to yield to the request for a special session of Congress. It was called for September 4, 1837. So rapid was the decliue in the national resources from taxation and the sales of land, that instead of a surplus, the government was now confronted with a deficit. Van Buren' s message to Cougress, when it convened, was full of clear and direct statements as to the cause of the economic distress. He frankly confessed that the policy of depositing the public money in state banks was a mistake, but instead of turning again to a national bank, which was the resource of Clay and the Whigs, he recommended the independent treasury system. The distribution of the fourth instalment of the surplus of the states, he said, should be withheld, since there was now no surplus and the regular needs of the government must be met by the creation of debt — the issue of treasury notes. Clay was in his place in the Senate, ready to con- duct a vigorous and able opposition. His defense of his policies was brilliant and convincing. The 248 HENEY CLAY President had said that the troubles of the country arose from overactiou and overtrading. " It would be quite as correct and just, in the instance of a homicide perpetrated by the discharge of a gun," said Mr. Clay, ' ' to allege that the leaden ball, and not the man who leveled the piece, was responsible for the murder. The true inquiry is, How came that excessive overtrading, and those extensive bank facilities which the message describes? Were they not the necessary and immediate consequences of the overthrow of the bank, and the removal from its custody of the public deposits'?" The surplus had arisen, he asserted, from the sales of the public lands, not from the tariff, as had been alleged by Mr. Calhoun and those who had taken a posi- tion hostile to the protective system. "If the land bill had been allowed to go into operation," he con- tinued, " it would have distributed generally and regularly among the several states the proceeds of the public lands, as they would have been received from time to time. They would have returned back in small streams, similar to those by which they have been collected, animating and improving and fructifying the whole country. ' ' There would then have been no surplus ; no removal of the deposits ; no accumulation in the state banks of great sums of money seeking mischief to do. Mr. Clay had been appealed to for some " healing measure." He could suggest none but a national bank. ' l The great want of the country is a general and uniform currency and a point of union, a senti- nel, a regulator of the issues of the local banks." The sub-treasury system he conceived to be full of " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 249 evils. It was likely to prove insecure. It opened a way to favoritism. It would fearfully increase executive patronage. All, or nearly all, the objec- tions resolved themselves into an expression of dis- trust of the Jackson party in the administration of this great new power, with ringing allusions to the " perilous union of the purse and the sword," and an effective appeal to the lessons of English history. In new language, with fresh energy and eloquence, he arraigned the usurpations of Jackson with few expressions of confidence of disavowal or change in Van Buren, who came into office with the inten- tion of following " in the very footsteps of his pred- ecessor." Clay had his remedy and it was a national bank. Then why did he not propose it at once? This course on his part he knew would be futile, with Congress constituted as it then was. "I do not desire to force upon the Senate," he said with dig- nity, "or upon the country against its will, if I could, my opinion, however sincerely or strongly entertained. If a national bank be established, its stability and its utility will depend upon the gen- eral conviction which is felt of its necessity. And until such a conviction is deeply impressed upon the people and clearly manifested by them, it would, in my judgment, be unwise even to propose a bank.' 1 He could perceive "no remedy but such as is in the hands of the people themselves." At the special session the sub-treasury bill passed the Senate but it failed in the House. When Con- gress convened in its regular session in December, the discussion was contiuued and on February 19, 250 HENRY CLAY 1838, Clay developed his thesis regarding the inde- pendent treasury system. He spoke this time at great length, with deeper earnestness, and obviously with more care. The result was an oration which, if in some ways it seems not to accord with our later experience with the branch treasuries, was pro- foundly interesting to those who heard it, and may be read with like interest at this day. Despite its long period of service, no competent judge of financial matters can claim perfection for the sub- treasury scheme, and many of its shortcomings were clearly foreseen and stated by Mr. Clay. His main em- ployment, however, was to identify the plan with Andrew Jackson's administration ; in this regard the speech is less convincing, and of less value to- day than it would otherwise have been. It is not at all certain that Jackson from the beginning had in view this kind of a " government bank," as Clay persisted in calling a treasury and its branches which should be in charge of all the fiscal opera- tions of the government, earlier entrusted to a semi- independent institution that for forty years had so successfully attended to them in Philadelphia. Clay tried to prove it from the President's messages and did so to his own complete satisfaction. It is rather to be believed that Jackson's antipathy to the Bauk of the United States in the first place was acci- dental ; that his pursuit of it was a matter of whim and passion ; and that to give him credit for having in view so good or suitable a system as the sub- treasury plan, is an undeserved compliment to his acumen as a public man. Clay seriously argued, however, at very consider- " TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 251 able length that Jackson had overthrown the United States Bank in favor of the state banks and was now himself, through his heirs in the business of govern- ment, engaged in the work of destroying these tem- porary objects of his favor, while all the time hav- ing in prospect a great central bank which would be under the absolute domination of the President. He opened his address with thanks to God — "that He has prolonged my life, until the present time, to enable me to exert myself in the service of my coun- try against a project far transcending in pernicious tendency any that I have ever had occasion to con- sider. ' ' Though there will seem to be some exaggeration in this statement, it is thus that Clay girded himself for what became a most powerful and impressive speech. He himself believed it, and this circum- stance gave inspiration to his thought, strength to his utterance and conviction to the minds of his auditors. Jackson's " egotism aud vanity," said Clay, at one point in the speech, "prompted him to subject everything to his will ; to change, to remold and retouch everything." He had the same sort of ambition which animated Napoleon and induced him "to impress his name upon everything in France." "When I was in Paris," said Clay with telling effect, " the sculptors were busily engaged chiseling out the famous 'N,' so odious to the Bourbon line, which had been conspicuously carved on the palace of the Tuileries, and on other public edifices and monuments in the proud capital of France. When, Mr. President, shall we see effaced all traces of the 252 HENKY CLAY ravages committed by the administratioD of Andrew Jackson? Society has been uprooted, virtue pun- ished, vice rewarded and talents and intellectual endowments despised ; brutality, vulgarism and loco-focoism upheld, cherished and countenanced. Ages will roll around before the moral and political ravages which have been committed will, I fear, cease to be discernible. " He reviewed the history of his personal acquaint- ance with Jackson and referred to the old "bargain and corruption" cry which arose in 1825. Im- mediately after he had announced his determination to vote for John Quincy Adams " a rancorous war was commenced against me and all the barking dogs let loose upon me. ... I gave the vote, which in the contingency that happened I told my col- league [Mr. Crittenden] who sits before me, prior to my departure from Kentucky in November, 1824, and told others that I should give. . . . But I thank my God that I stand here firm and erect, un- bent, unbroken, unsubdued, unawed, ready to de- nounce the mischievous measures of his administra- tion, and ready to denounce this, its legitimate offspring, the most pernicious of them all." " His administration," Clay continued, the vision unfolding as he proceeded, " consisted of a succes- sion of astounding measures which fell on the public ear like repeated bursts of loud and appalling thun- der. Before the reverberations of one peal had ceased another and another came, louder and louder, and more terrifying. Or rather it was like a vol- canic mountain, emitting frightful eruptions of burning lava. Before one was cold and crusted j " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 253 before the voices of the inhabitants of buried vil- lages and cities were hushed in eternal silence, an- other more desolating was vomited forth, extending wider and wider the circle of death and destruction." Though the speech was marked by no little knowledge of financial subjects, it was rendered most notable perhaps by its allusions to Calhoun, who was now drawing off 1 from the alliance which he had formed with the Whigs for the purpose of combating the policies of Andrew Jackson, and which had been more or less faithfully maintained since Clay had arranged the Compromise of 1833. This was the beginning of an oratorical tourney which was destined to attract more attention than any since the Webster-Hayne debates, and it found Clay aggressive and fit. He outstripped Webster. He was the unquestioned leader of the Whig party and Calhoun recognized his position. The South Carolinian was asked in 1832 what were his relative views of Webster and Clay. He said : " Mr. Web- ster will never be President. He lacks the qualifi- cations of a leader ; he has no faith in his own convictions ; he can never be the head of a party. Though very superior in intellect to Mr. Clay, he lacks his moral courage and his strong convictions. Hence, Mr. Clay will always be the head of the party and Mr. Webster will follow." 2 Calhoun in a public letter had formally taken leave of his old associates, saying that he was not willing to be absorbed by an organization whose 1 " At this critical moment the senator left us ; he left us foi the purpose of preventing the success of the common cause." 2 Hunt, Calhoun, p. 223. 254 HENKY CLAY principles were found to be " so opposite to ours and so dangerous to our institutions as well as op pressive to us" ; and on February 15th, in a speech in the Senate, came out emphatically in favor of the sub-treasury bill. Clay now went after Calhoun with the graceful movements which always characterized him, but unpityingly. He plunged the rapier under the vizor, making his victim reel with auger and pain. The "drawer" of the sub-treasury bill was "the distinguished gentleman in the White House" ; the " endorser" was "the distinguished senator from South Carolina." The speaker continued : "What the drawer thinks of the endorser, his cautious reserve and stifled enmity prevent us from knowing. But the frankness of the endorser has not left us in the same ignorance with respect to the opinion of the drawer. He has often expressed it upon the floor of the Senate. On an occasion not very distant, denying him any of the nobler quali- ties of the royal beast of the forest, he attributed to him those which belong to the most crafty, most skulking and one of the meanest of the quadruped tribe." 1 He told how the alliance had been formed between South Carolina and the Whigs " to arrest the prog- ress of corruption ; to rebuke usurpation and to drive the Goths and Vandals from the Capitol." Their object was about to be accomplished when Calhoun deserted them. " He took up his musket, knapsack and shot-pouch, and joined the other party. He went horse, foot and dragoon, and he 1 " The fox of Kinderhook." ' « TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 255 himself composed the whole corps. . . . We did no wrong to the distinguished senator from South Carolina. On the contrary we respected him, confided in his great and acknowledged ability, his uncommon genius, his extensive experience, his supposed patriotism ; above all we confided in his stern and inflexible fidelity. Nevertheless, he left us and joined our common opponents, distrusting and distrusted. He left us, as he tells us in his Edgefield letter, because the victory which our com- mon arms were about to achieve was not to inure to him and his party, but exclusively to the benefit of his allies and their cause. I thought that actuated by patriotism, that noblest of human virtues, we had been contending together for our common coun- try, for her violated rights, her threatened liberties, her prostrate constitution. Never did I suppose that personal or party considerations entered into our views. Whether if victory shall ever again be about to perch upon the standard of the spoils party (the denomination which the senator from South Carolina has so often given to his present allies) he will not feel himself constrained by the principles on which he has acted, to leave them, because it may not inure to the benefit of himself and his party, I leave to be adjusted between themselves." Continuing, Mr. Clay said that he had found the speech of the senator from South Carolina, delivered four days before, on February 15th, " plausible, in- genious, abstract, metaphysical and generalizing." It did not appear to him (Clay) " to be adapted to the bosoms and business of human life. It was aerial and not very high up in the air, Mr. Presi- 256 HENRY CLAY dent, either.'' The closing passages were an en- treaty to his fellow senators in his most eloquent vein. He pointed to the English experience with a bank, as good for us to-day as it was in 1838 : ' ' I oppose to these imaginary terrors, the ex- ample deducible from English history. There a bank has existed since the year 1694, and neither has the bank got possession of the government, nor the government of the bank. . . . Will the Sen- ate then bring upon itself the odium of passing this bill ? I implore it to forbear, forbear, forbear ! I appeal to the instructed senators. Is this govern- ment made for us, or for the people and the states whose agents we are? . . . I call upon all the senators ; let us bury deep and forever the charac- ter of the partisan, rise up patriots and statesmen, break the vile chains of party, throw the fragments to the winds, and feel the proud satisfaction that we have made but a small sacrifice to the paramount obligation which we owe to our common country." Under such charges Calhoun could not rest longer than March 10th 7 when the way opened for him to reply to Clay. He wrote once to his daughter : " Mr. Clay is very impudent and I expect to have a round with him." ' It is said that he stood with every muscle distended. His long hair seemed to be on end and his forehead was wet with perspi- ration. No other sound was heard in the Senate chamber while in shrill tones he poured out the floods of his denunciation. 2 The style of the dis- course was plain and cold compared with Clay's, which was lighted up always by the warm glow > Hunt, pp. 221-222. 9 Ibid., p. 222. "TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 257 of his own temperament. Calhoun found Clay's speech to be " a premeditated and gratuitous at- tack " and he resented it vigorously. " The faculties of our minds," he said, " are the immediate gifts of our Creator for which we are no further responsible than for their proper cultiva- tion, according to our opportunities, and their proper application to control and regulate our ac- tions. . . . The critic must expect to be criti- cized, and he who points out the faults of others to have his own pointed out. I cannot retort on the senator the charge of being metaphysical. I cannot accuse him of possessing the powers of analysis and generalization, those higher faculties of the mind (called metaphysical by those who do not possess them) which decompose and resolve into their ele- ments the complex masses of ideas that exist in the world of mind, as chemistry does the bodies that surround us in the material world. . . . The absence of these higher qualities of mind is con- spicuous throughout the whole course of the sena- tor's public life. To this it may be traced, that he prefers the specious to the solid, and the plausible to the true. To the same cause, combined with an ardent temperament, it is owing that we ever find him mounted on some popular and favorite measure which he whips along, cheered by the shouts of the multitude and never dismounts till he has ridden it down. . . . It is the fault of his mind to seize on a few prominent and striking advantages, and to pursue them eagerly without looking to conse- quences." * ' Works of Calhoun, Vol. Ill, pp. 274-275. 258 HENKY CLAY These entertaining amenities between Clay and Calhoun gave zest to the debates of the Senate for the next two or three years. Each man in his char- acteristic way pursued the other relentlessly, Web- ster now and then interfering in the forensic duel and diverting Calhoun's attention in his own direc- tion. The people followed the contest with de- light. The excitement reached its height in the summer of 1839-1840 in the discussion of the plan which Calhoun offered in opposition to Clay's, for dealing with the public lands. He proposed that they be turned over to the states in which they were situated, "a donation," as Clay declared it to be " of upward of one hundred millions of acres of the common property of all the states of this Union to particular states." A running debate between the two men began on January 3, 1840. Clay made an effort to identify the bill with the administration, and to show that Calhoun, in advancing it, had the support of Van Buren. The South Carolinian said that such an in- quiry was an improper one in such a place. u Was it of no importance," Clay asked in reply, "that the distinguished senator had made his bow in court, kissed the hand of the monarch, was taken into favor and agreed henceforth to support his edicts? " This greatly enraged Calhoun who, while they were on the subject of agreements and under- standings, said he would allude to that one, now very famous, by which Clay had entered the cabinet of President Adams. Calhoun asserted bluntly that for two years past he had been supporting the leading measures of the Executive, a statement " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 259 which Clay welcomed gladly, as he launched into another defense of himself against the " bargain" story of 1825. He recalled to Calhoun's mind the fact that he also had then favored Adams as against Jackson, and his constituents had approved it from that day to this, and would to eternity. History would ratify and approve it. Clay defied the sena- tor to make anything out of that part of his career if he could. He had been charged with being an advocate of compromise. So he had been, on a notable occasion, and no man should be more grate- ful for it than the senator from South Carolina. But for that Compromise, Mr. Clay was not at all certain that he would now have the honor to meet the senator face to face in this national Capitol. Mr. Calhoun presented himself as a defender of state rights. The bill under consideration was an attempt to strip and rob seventeen states of this Union of their property, and assign it over to some eight or nine of the states. If this were what the senator called vindicating the rights of the states, Mr. Clay l ' prayed God to deliver the country from all such rights, and all such advocates." How Calhoun would reply every one was curious to know. He chose to turn to the Compromise of 1833 for which he felt no gratitude toward Mr. Clay. The obligation was on the other side. As the sena- tor himself had alluded to the matter, he was bound to explain what might otherwise be left in oblivion. Clay was compelled to compromise in order to save himself. Events had placed him "flat on his back," and no other way was open to him. The senator was left "in the most hopeless position," Calhoun ,--■ 260 HEJSTEY CLAY continued, u with no more weight with his former partisans than this sheet of paper" (the speaker raised one from his desk). When Calhoun had finished, Clay again rose, "sorry to be obliged to prolong the discussion." The senator had said that, " I was flat on my back and that he was my master," exclaimed Mr. Clay amid much excitement, advancing down the aisle directly in front of Calhoun. He pointed his quiver- ing finger at his opponent and repeated in tones in which were concentrated the utmost scorn and de- fiance, "He, my master!" "He, my master!" he said again in louder tones with his finger still pointed at Calhoun, and retreating backward with an air indicating the greatest abhorrence. "He, my master ! " he repeated a third time, raising his voice to a yet higher key, while he continued his backward movement to the very lobby. Then sud- denly changing his voice from a trumpet's strength almost to a whisper, which was audible nevertheless in every corner of the Senate chamber, he added, "Sir, I would not own him as a slave." There was a hush of breathless silence, followed in a moment by a great outburst of applause which nearly caused the chair to expel the spectators from the galleries. 1 Thus the debate proceeded, with perhaps no im- mediate purpose but to exhibit the brilliant quali- ties of mind of two senators of the United States and to amuse the country, though it more clearly defined party relations and brought the sectional difference 1 William Mathews, Orators and Oratory ; Congressional Globe, 1839-1840, pp. 96-97. " TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 261 one step nearer the end. The sub-treasury bill, which had been the occasion of Calhoun's departure from Clay, and his affiliation with Van Buren, in order to form that slavery -defending Democratic party, which was the South' s hope until the Civil War, had not passed at the special session of 1838. The administration continued to press it, however, and at last it became a law, Clay opposing it with all his abilities to the end. He spoke again on the subject at much length and with great care on Janu- ary 20, 1840, just before the final vote, which was twenty-four to eighteen in the Senate and 124 to 107 in the House. He did not abate anything of his faith in a United States Bank. That, he said, was the remedy, not this great " government bank, "as he continued to denominate the independent treasury, with large numbers of employees holding their of- fices "at the pleasure and mercy of the President." " There scarcely remains any power in this gov- ernment," he said in concluding his speech, "but that of the President. He suggests, originates, con- trols, checks everything. The insatiable spirit of the Stuarts for power and prerogative was brought upon our American throne on the 4th of March, 1829. It came under all the usual false and hypo- critical pretenses and disguises of love of the people, desire of reform, and diffidence of power. The Scotch dynasty still continues. We have had Charles the First and now we have Charles the Second. But I again thank God that our deliver- ance is not distant, and that on the 4th of March, 1841, a great and glorious revolution without blood, and without convulsion will be achieved." 262 HENEY CLAY This was Clay's desire as well as his belief, and the party alignments for another presidential con- test were forming rapidly. It is not to be denied that he thought and hoped he would this time be the successful candidate. As the year approached, he followed the course of political events in the various states through his friends, sanguinely, though at times also anxiously. Webster too had designs upon the presidency, and he was a leader who in his own section had great strength. General Harrison, the "old hero" of Tippecanoe, had led the poll among the Whig candidates in 1836, and he still seemed to many a very available figure for a popular campaign. On January 28, 1839, Clay wrote to Judge Brooke from the Senate chamber : "The spirits of my friends are again revived, and they think that they see, in various quarters, indi- cations of the final result which their partiality prompts them to desire. I believe myself that the current in my favor, which for the moment ap- peared to be impeded, will again burst forward with accumulated strength." ! In the summer of 1839, Mr. Clay made another tour of the Eastern states. Upon his visit to New York, which he approached in the steamer James Madison, he was met at the wharf in Greenwich by immense crowds, and placed in an open barouche, preceded by a band of music and followed by car- riages containing prominent citizens who had come to escort him into the city. His entire way to the Astor House, a distance of three miles, was lined with people who acclaimed him with great enthu- 1 Private Correspondence, p. 439. " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 263 siasin. Even the housetops were tilled with on- lookers ; flags and banners were everywhere ; bands stationed in the street played as he passed ; ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and the whole commu- nity seemed to unite to honor him. One of his ad- mirers likened it to an u oriental pageant." * In- deed, for a long time now, whenever Clay went about the country, he was the mark of just such demonstrations of popular love ; sometimes logs were rolled upon the railway track at stations which he passed upon his journeys and the crowds refused to remove them until Clay had come out to make a speech. Thus, it would seem, he was not to be blamed for thinking that he would be his party's natural choice for the nomination. As for the canvass of 1832, the candidate was to be named in a national convention. The meeting of delegates was to be held in Harrisburg early in December, 1839. Clay's friends believed that his prospects were of the best, and it was a matter for surprise as well as great chagrin, when they found that arrangements had been made which would re- sult in their complete undoing. A situation un- favorable to Clay seems to have been brought about mainly by the disaffection of Webster's friends, and the belief of some party managers, principally in New York, that he was a defeated candidate witli whom it would be difficult to make a successful fight. As for the first consideration — that bearing upon Webster's course, when he, foreseeing his own defeat, withdrew from the contest — it should not have been unexpected. ' ' It seems to be one of the 1 Mallory, Vol. I, p. 184. 264 HENRY CLAY weaknesses of great men in the competition for the highest honors," says Mr. Schurz, "to prefer com- paratively small men to one another." In addition to this the Whig party in New York, like the Jackson party in that state, had developed some astute political manipulators. They had an almost modern prescience regarding their own inter- ests. Their point of view was strange to Mr. Clay and his friends who lived among large questions, which bore directly on the public welfare. The chief of these was Thurlow Weed, an editor of Albany, who was now coming forward as apolitical influence, and who from this time on led a tolerably triumphant career as a wire-puller, until under the banner of William H. Seward he met the Lincoln men at Chicago in 1860. Clay had learned some- thing of the attitude of Weed at Saratoga Springs, while on his New York visit, during the summer. Thither the leader went with the purpose, if pos- sible, of inducing Clay to withdraw from the con- test. He had two ends in view, he himself says — to save Clay, to whom he was "warmly attached," the mortification of defeat, and to prepare the way for the victory of the Whig party, which now had an opportunity to achieve its first national success. The conversations continued off and on for two days, Mr. Clay's bearing being always courteous and kind. He said that he could not " in view of the earnest wishes of troops of his friends through- out the Union refuse them the use of his name," but he would " cheerfully and heartily acquiesce " in the decision of the convention, whatever it might be. 1 1 Weed, Autobiography, Vol. I, p.'481. " TIPPECANOE AND TYLER-, TOO" 265 The canvass developed "great zeal and una- nimity" in favor of Mr. Clay in New York City and the river counties, but in other portions of the state a sentiment existed favorable to General Har- rison and General Scott, the latter being introduced into the situation for no other purpose than to effect the object in view, — the defeat of the candidate who was in reality the choice of a vast majority of the Whigs of the state. Scott's nomination seen to be impossible, the delegates . would be turned over to Harrison. Public opinion was subjected to a great amount of manipulation, 1 and when the New York- ers were in place, there were twenty for Scott, ten for Clay and two for Harrison. Weed very frankly tells of his next step, which was to open negotia- tions with some of the Webster men, with whom he formed an agreement. Although Clay was seen to have a "decided plurality" in the con- vention, Weed, ostensibly acting on the theory that Clay could not carry New York and Penn- sylvania, succeeded in nominating another can- didate. Clay foresaw the result. He wrote to General Combs on December 3d, just before the convention met. He had understood, he said, that eight or nine- tenths of the Whigs of New York preferred him to other candidates, yet a nomination was to be made in conformity to the wishes of one or two- tenths. He desired to know whether it was not easier to bring over one or two-tenths to eight or nine-tenths than to do the opposite thing. 2 Neither 1 Schnrz, Vol. II, p. 177. 2 Private Correspondence, p. 142. 266 HEXRY CLAY Harrison nor Scott 1 seems to have thought himself a suitable candidate for the presidency, especially as a rival to Clay, but they were all pawns in the hands of a few men who had lately entered the po- litical arena in America, to change the course of history from that which it would have taken, if left free to move along the natural lines it had followed be- fore Jackson's corrupting advent into our public life. Even yet Weed and his friends were not suffi- 1 A letter in possession of Mrs. Thomas H. Clay of Lexington, Ky., written by General Scott to Henry Clay from Utica, N. Y., on February 5, 1839, says : " . . . Having recently passed rapidly through many of the states (on public duty) I have been approached by persons, of more or less consideration, almost everywhere, who have tendered me assurances of eventual sup- port for the office of President at the next election. Those as- surances have come from the friends of yourself, of General Har- rison, Mr. Webster and Mr. Van Buren, respectively. In al- most every case it was evident that the individual had some doubt of the success of his own favorite candidate, and only looked to me as his second choice. I made one general reply to all and each, — 'that I was no politician and could not claim the high distinction of being a statesman ; that I was absolutely indifferent whether I ever reached the office of President ; that I made no pretensions to it, and that there were already presi- dential candidates enough before the public without the addi- tion of my name.' To the Whigs, I made the further declara- tion, — 'that it ought not to be doubted that the convention they were to hold would reduce the number of their candidates to one — whom all would cordially support,' and to the support- ers of Mr. Van Buren, I further said, — ' that, in my bosom, I had had the misfortune to condemn almost every leading meas- ure of the late and present administrations, and at least seven in every ten appointments which the two had made.' " Being more strongly urged by some leading "Whigs than by the many alluded to above, and who seemed to think that the final battle would be fought the next year, I replied, ' You ought not to despair of success with the one candidate who may he duly nominated by the convention ; — should he, however, he defeated, I admit that your case will then become rather des- perate ; it will still be your duty to renew the contest and should you then want a leader of the forlorn hope, and a better "TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 267 ciently certain of the result to allow the convention to go its own way. A resolution was introduced and passed, authorizing each state delegation to appoint a committee of three to "receive the views and opinions of that delegation, and communicate the same to the assembled committees of all the delega- tions." Each delegation should for itself ballot for a presidential candidate and report the result back to the general committee through its committee of three. This scheme worked admirably. There was no opportunity for Clay's friends to nominate him in open meeting, and to carry him through by storm. Nevertheless, on the first ballot Clay re- ceived 102 votes, as against ninety-one for Harrison and fifty-seven for Scott. The latter was eliminated at the right time, in accordance with the plan of the managers, and on the final ballot there were 148 votes for Harrison, ninety for Clay and sixteen for Scott. be not disclosed in time, you may reckon upon me for that service — with a possibility of success— upon the principle (the nation having been made rabid by one military chieftain) that " the hair of the dog is good for the bite." ' This may look like a present argument in favor of my friend General Harrison who, no doubt, and perhaps with good reason, thinks himself su- perior to me in general soldiership and in conflicts of the field, as he is as a politician and statesman ; but in quoting the adajie I was thinking of his being probably excluded from the next contest by the intervening convention, and of the fact that when out in the last he was not accepted— which perhaps is a conclusive argument against any quack remedy. Be all this as it may, you have in this, and the enclosed letter [to the Sec- retary of War] 'the head and front of my offending,' or inter- meddling, in politics, and I shall continue to observe the same course in the singleness of sincerity. ... In the mean- time, as always, I remain, my dear sir, with the highest respect and esteem, " Very truly yours, " Winfield Scott." 268 HENRY CLAY It is not to be wondered at that the " disappoint- ment and vexation" of Clay's friends found " excited expression." ' The opposition had reason to fear that it had gone much too far. It delayed the final ballot twenty -four hours in order to effect a recon- ciliation, and while the nomination was made unani- mous, the motion could be offered and supported with little grace. It was clear enough now that nothing would do except to nominate a candidate for Vice-President, drawn from Clay's immediate circle of friends. But none who was suitable could be found. B. Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, rose and declined. John M. Clayton, of Delaware, refused the honor through his friend Reverdy Johnson. Finally ex-Governor John Tyler, of Virginia, who had voted for Clay in the convention and had at former times expressed admiration for the great Kentuckian and his policies, was named, and he accepted. Nevertheless, the ticket was not put for- ward without many misgivings, and it remained for Clay himself to give to it, in a spirit of true magna- nimity, that position in the sight of the Whigs of the country, which led to a sweeping victory after one of the hardest fought popular contests in the history of the presidency in America. As in 1831-1832 the work of the nominating con- vention was ratified a few months afterward by a national convention of "young men." This met in Baltimore, May 4, 1840. Clay addressed on the occa- sion an audience of more than 20,000, audit was a meeting in which enthusiasm was unconfiued. He spoke of the convention at Harrisburg. It was com- 1 Weed, Vol. I, p. 482. < i TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 269 posed he said of "as enlightened and as respectable a body of men as were ever assembled" in this country. "General Harrison was nominated, and cheerfully and without a moment's hesitation, I gave my hearty concurrence in that nomination. From that moment to the present I have had but one wish, one object, one desire, and that is to secure the election of the distinguished citizen who received the suffrages of the convention." He believed that there were twenty states which would give their votes to Harrison, a prediction that did not fall far short of a triumphant realization. Clay entered the campaign with energy, speaking at many places. The enthusiasm seemed to well up spontaneously all over the country, and was without previous, and perhaps later example. Log cabins with the " latch -string " hanging out, 'coons and hard cider — all indicative of Harrison's beginnings on the frontier — everywhere appeared to swell the excitement. Glee clubs were organized to sing cam- paign songs; companies of men and boys marched up and down the country shouting "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." The "old hero" of New Orleans was not a circumstance to the "old hero" of an Indian war whom the Whigs had now groomed and brought out upon parade twenty-nine years after the event. One of Clay's most notable speeches was that de- livered at a Harrison meeting in Nashville ou August 17th, within arm's length of Jackson in the "Hermitage." Thousands of men and women at- tended to listen. The audience seemed as great as that in Baltimore and the marching men, the sing. 270 HENRY CLAY ing, the shouting, the gay banners, the waving handkerchiefs made him think, as Clay had else- where said, that the nation was somehow "agitated upon its whole surface and at its lowest depths like the ocean when convulsed by a terrible storm." He came, he explained, to bring no hard words for General Jackson, their fellow citizen and friend. He was a " great chieftain ; he had fought bravely and well for his country.' 1 The speaker hoped that "he would live long and enjoy much happiness, and when he departed from this fleeting vale of tears, that he would enter into the abode of the just made perfect." Mr. Clay reached his climax when he spoke of his old friend, Felix Grundy, who from being a very eminent criminal lawyer had advanced to the United States Senate. In 1838 he had become Van Buren's Attorney-General, and was now engaged in trying to accomplish the reelection of his chief who had been renominated by the Democrats. "One of the pleasures which I promised myself in making this visit to your beautiful town," said Clay, "was to meet and talk over matters with him, but on my inquiry for him I learned that he was in East Ten- nessee making speeches in favor of the present ad- ministration. ' Ah ! ' said I, ' at his old occupation, — defending criminals ! ' " This was an immensely successful sally for a po- litical meeting. Those who were present say that the manner in which Clay made it "surpasses de- scription." His gestures and the style of his speak- ing, combined to produce a great effect. When the commotion subsided, he continued happily, "But u TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO" 271 there is this difference between my distinguished friend's present and past defense of criminals. He is now defending great criminals of state not before a carefully packed jury, but before the free, en- lightened, virtuous and patriotic people ; and there- fore we may well hope that his present defense will not be attended with his hitherto unusual success." 1 The campaign was one long frolic which could have but one result. Van Buren had fallen upon evil days. He was reaping the whirlwind after Jackson had sowed the wind. Some renewal of confidence had occurred in the business of the country since the panic of 1837, but banks began to fail again, and with ruin in every one's mind the party in power could easily be swept out of place. It could be said in truth of Harrison that he had no known opinions upon most of the grttc! issues which Clay and Webster had set up for the Whig party, but this was probably to his advantage. It was in any event an opposition party year, and it was an op- portunity lost to Clay, to the organization which he had created, and to the country which so sorely needed to be recalled to the sound principles of its earlier years when he was cheated out of his portion at Harrisburg. After all the states had been heard from, there were found to be 234 electoral votes from nineteen states for Harrison, and only sixty from seven states (New Hampshire, Virginia, South Carolina, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas) for Van Buren. Never had the Whig outlook been so propitious or the party hope of immediate achievement so 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 217. 272 HEKRY CLAY great. The more, then, were the disappointment and chagrin when events conspired to prevent the reaping of any worthy harvest. Clay pressed the cause boldly in the last session of Congress of Van Buren's administration, beginning in December, 1840, and ending March, 1841. He led a move- ment to repeal the sub-treasury law, though he knew it could not succeed until the results of the election should be seen in a new Congress. He was, however, a born parliamentarian ; he was made to shine in a legislative chamber ; it was his delight to call out an antagonist in debate and put him in the attitude of defense before the assembled multitude. The main point of his argument was that the coun- try had decreed the repeal of the measure at the recent elections. ' ' Gentlemen on the other side ' ' had said that the people had decided this or that, especially in regard to a Bank of the United States, and he wished them now to note the message of the nation on the subject of the sub-treasury scheme. He was taunted with being the leader of " a coon- skin, log-cabin party." Before going further, he would like to ask those who used these words in so much contempt, what kind of a party theirs must be "to be driven out of power by a party whose residence is a log cabin and whose covering is coon- skins" ? There was something wrong about it or the defeated party would never have met so hard a fate. 1 Late in January he made another elaborate speech upon his land bill. He maintained throughout the session a triumphant air, which had better been a 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 22 et seq. 44 TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO 11 273 little subdued, especially in view of what was so soon to follow. But that was the nature of the man. It gave him joy to taunt the administration party which had been so decisively overthrown. He had the spirits of a schoolboy whose team had just van- quished an opponent on some athletic field. The merits of his scheme for the distribution of the pro- ceeds of the sales of public lands were again stated in a discourse which extended over two days, amid interpolations by other members, rejoinders, laugh- ter on the floor and in the galleries, and some of the horse-play borrowed from the stump from which all the senators had so recently come back. One passage at least deserves to be remembered, however, though later events prove how much over- drawn the prophecy was by the orator's hopeful imagination. The measure he believed would greatly tend to the perpetuity of the Union. " No section, no state," he exclaimed, v ' would ever be mad enough to break off from the Union and de- prive itself of the inestimable advantages which it secures. Although thirty or forty more new states should be admitted into this Union, this measure would cement them all fast together." An honor- able senator wished to witness a settlement at the mouth of the Oregon, "and he will probably be gratified at no distant day. Then will be seen members of Congress from the Pacific states scaling the Eocky Mountains, passing through the country of the grizzly bear, descending the turbid Missouri, entering the father of rivers, ascending the beautiful Ohio and coming to this Capitol to take their seats in its spacious and magnificent halls. Proud of the 274 HENRY CLAY commission they bear, and happy to find themselves here in council with friends and brother country- men, enjoying the incalculable benefits of this great confederacy and, among them, their annual dis- tributive share of the issues of a nation's inher- itance, would even they, the remote people of the Pacific, ever desire to separate themselves from such a high and glorious destiny ? " 1 Clay, not unnaturally, had the expectation of being the principal power behind the new President. He had been speaking as the party chief and this he was by common consent the country over. He was invited to become Secretary of State in the cabinet of General Harrison who visited " Ashland" on his way East ; but he chose to remain in the Senate as a field for greater service to the administration. Webster, who had been reserved for the Treasury Department, was then asked to take the post. The cabinet was made up largely of Clay's warm and devoted friends, though Harrison seemed early to fall under the influence of the petty politicians who had dominated the Harrisburg convention. They sought to have the new President believe that Clay was endeavoring to override him in appointments to office, and the development of national policies, a charge which deeply wounded the great Kentuck- ian. Herds of office-hunters poured into Washing- ton. Jackson had not only corrupted his own party ; he had also taken the virtue out of the other, and in the hour of victory there was a large demand for the spoils. With this unseemly exhi- bition Clay could consistently have nothing to do. 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 270. a TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO" 275 He held aloof from it all with no wish in the tri- umph but to cause to prevail the measures which he had made his and his party's during the twelve years past. He said in a speech in his own " slashes of Hanover " while the campaign was in progress : "If we acted on the avowed and acknowledged principle of our opponents l that the spoils belong to the victors,' we should indeed be unworthy of the support of the people. No ! fellow citizens ; higher, nobler, more patriotic motives actuate the Whig party. Their object is the restoration of the Constitution, the preservation of liberty and rescue of the country." l It was a cause of disappointment, if not of auger, to Clay to be told by an entirely mediocre man, who by mere chance had come to the President's chair, as an exponent of what were his own principles and policies, that his advice bore the appearance of in- terference. "If to express freely my opinion as a citizen and as a senator in regard to public matters be dictation," he wrote to Harrison on March 15, 1841, before leaving for "Ashland," "then I have dictated and not otherwise. There is but one alter- native which I could embrace, to prevent the exer- cise of this common right of freedom of opinion, and that is retirement to private life. That I am most desirous of, and if I do not promptly indulge the feeliug, it is because I entertain the hope — perhaps vain hope — that by remaining a little longer in the Senate, I may possibly render some service to the country to whose interests my life has been dedi- cated." 2 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 207. l Private Correspondence, p. 453. 276 HENRY CLAY When Clay returned to the capital for the special session of Congress, which had been called to begin a Whig administration of the government on May 31, 1841, General Harrison was gone. He had lived only a month, and John Tyler was established in the President's office, a firmer, stronger man, but a more mischievous one from every Whig poiut of view than Harrison ever could have been. Clay had reached the age of sixty-four and his health was not of the best. He alluded in his speeches to his years, and was likely to make complaint of tire and exhaustion before he came to the end of a discourse. While Tyler was not one of his trusted friends, he was supposed to be an entirely sympathetic disciple. In 1825 he had written a letter, which was remem- bered, approving of Clay's vote for John Quincy Adams. "Instead of seeing in your course on the late presidential question aught morally or politic- ally wrong," he said, "I am on the contrary fully impressed with the belief that the United States owes you a deep debt of gratitude for that course." ' It is true that he was a strict constructionist of the Jeffersouian and Madisonian school, and in the Seuate he had put himself in an attitude of opposi- tion to internal improvements, the protective sys- tem and the national bank. Since that time, how- ever, he had given up his seat rather than obey the resolutions of the Virginia legislature, instructing him to vote to place Benton's black lines around the record of censure against Jackson. He thus came to be regarded as a kind_of martyr, worthy of reward at the hands of the Whig party. He had 1 Private Correspondence^ pp. 119-120. something being done by others. I shall therefore go home in the spring." l This view of the situation was entirely sound. It was a prospect very different from that which he had beheld a year before when the party entered office with so much hope of great achievement. Another financial question engaged Mr. Clay's at- tention in March, 1842. As the time drew near for the reduction of the tariff to the horizontal rate of twenty per cent. , where under the terms of the Com- promise of 1833 it would stand after June 30, 1842, he, as one of the parties to that agreement, as well as the Whig leader, felt that he had a duty to per- form. Even before the day of reduction, the reve- nues were inadequate, counting in the proceeds of the land sales which he still wished to distribute to the states. Calhoun, on his side, attributed the financial distress of the country, now prolonged for several years, to the tariff, a theory which Clay combated vigorously. He declared again that it was his purpose as long as he remained in the Sen- ate to see that "the original principles of the act [of 1833] should be carried out faithfully and honestly." 2 It was a task of some embarrassment now to state that duties greater than twenty per cent, toward which, for the conciliation of South Carolina, they had all the while been tending, were necessary even before that ideal had been reached. He very truly said, however, that there was no such limitation in 1 Private Correspondence, p. 456. 'Speech in Senate, February 18, 1842. 284 HENRY CLAY the act ; the impression that the tariff was not to exceed the horizontal rate of twenty per cent, after 1842 was entirely erroneous. This was not one of the principles of the Compromise, and it had been distinctly stated in 1833 that the duties there- after should be what the needs and exigencies of the nation might require. After carefully reviewing the financial situation of the government, he found that 826,000,000 were needed annually from cus- toms, and that with importation running at the present rate, an ad valorem duty of thirty per cent, was imperatively demanded. His speeches at this session were couched in mod- erate and conciliatory language. They seemed to be the laying down of programmes for his followers by a departing leader, who wished to go in the spirit of peace. His place was to be taken by his friend, John J. Crittenden, who had entered the Senate as his colleague from Kentucky, in 1835, and resigned in 1841 only to enter Harrison's cabinet, which he had left at the time of the explosion in the preced- ing September. On March 31st Clay delivered his farewell address. It was one of the most notable events in the history of the United States Senate. The act was performed with all the dramatic ac- companiments and settings which characterized his life as a great popular leader. The chamber was crowded by men and women who bent forward to hear the stately sentences which were for the last time, as it was believed, to flow in that place from the silver tongue of their beloved orator. The peo- ple " seemed to be literally piled one upon another." Not only was every seat taken, but the railings also '" TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO " 285 were occupied, while every avenue leading to the chamber was choked with humanity. Two hours before the speech began exit and entrance were equally impossible. There was no disappointment. It was a solemn scene. Clay rose to offer " the last motion I shall ever make in this body" — the presentation of the credentials of his successor. He opened with a tribute to the Senate, which he said could, " with- out arrogance or presumption, stand an advantageous comparison with any deliberative body that ever existed in ancient or modern times." He had been in the public service almost continuously since 1806. It was not for him to say what had been his success. " 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, then sentence will be pronounced and to that I commit myself." He spoke of his enemies without bitterness, and of his friends, to whom his heart went out in "never- ceasing gratitude." His feelings, when alluding to them, overcame him, and he proceeded with " deep sensibility and difficult utterance." He paid his tribute to Kentucky ; he repelled the charge that he was a " dictator." He owned that his nature was warm, his temper ardent and his disposition, es- pecially in relation to the public service, enthu- siastic, and he made his apologies to any of his brother senators whom he may have offended, per- haps, by word or tone of speech in the course of de- bate. He would go without carrying with him "a 286 HENRY CLAY single feeling of resentment or dissatisfaction to the Senate, or any one of its members." Such senti- ments should be consigned to oblivion. His wish was that the recollections of all " 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 hon- orable to the Senate and to the nation, in which each has sought and contended for what he deemed the best mode of accomplishing one common object, the interest and the most happiness of our beloved coun- try." He prayed " the most precious blessings of Heaven " to rest upon " the whole Senate, and each member of it," and bade them all "along, a last- ing, and a friendly farewell." Thereupon Mr. Crittenden took the oath of office and William C. Preston of South Carolina, Calhoun's colleague though a Whig and a friend of Clay, rose to say that what had just occurred was an epoch in the history of the Senate, and he would move an adjournment, which was unanimously agreed to. The members pressed around the orator. Calhoun shook hands with him for the first time in many years. For a minute or two neither man was able to speak. Finally as they parted Clay said, " Give my best regards to Mrs. Calhoun." Sober old sen- ators as well as ladies in the galleries were in tears while Clay spoke, and impressive as is the ora- tion upon a reading at this day, one who heard it has declared that the printed words convey only the most meagre suggestion of its power and beauty. Crittenden wrote to a friend that "Clay's leaving Congress was something like the soul's quitting the ''TIPPECANOE AND TYLEE, TOO » 287 body." 1 "It was the first occasion of the kind," said Benton in describing the scene a few years later, " and thus far has been the last." He added sagely that i i it might not be reconimendable for any one except another Henry Clay — if another should ever appear, — to attempt the imitation." 1 Life of Crittenden, Vol. I, p. 177. CHAPTEE XI SLAVERY AND ANTI- SLAVERY Beyond all doubt Henry Clay hated slavery, though he owned negroes as did most men of his wealth and position in Kentucky. He had as body- servants one or two slaves who were his almost in- separable companions. One of these, Aaron Dupuy, accompanied him to Washington in the early years of his public career, and also went abroad with him when he was commissioner in 1814-1815 at Ghent. Aaron's wife, Mammy Lottie, nursed all of Mr. Clay's children and many of his grandchildren, and when Aaron became too old for the service, his place as valet was taken by his son Charles, of whom Mr. Clay spoke as "my faithful servant and friend Charles." He was not oblivious to the evils of slavery — no thoughtful, humane man could be — but he had been closely associated with this system of labor, and it did not bear upon him as the intolerable yoke which it seemed to increasing numbers of per- sons at the North, in large part drawn from his own political party. While in early life he had ex- pressed his abhorrence of the institution, as had most of the Virginia "fathers" out of whose school he sprang, he had spoken quite clearly on the slave- holders' side while the question of the Missouri Com- promise was under discussion. He was always a consistent advocate of the SLAVEEY AND ANTI SLAVEEY 289 colonization of the negroes in Liberia, or elsewhere, but this policy was recommended with the desire of riddiug the country of the free negro rather than the slave, and was therefore a sectional measure designed principally to favor the South. In 1830 while William Lloyd Garrison was in prison in Baltimore, the young and enthusiastic anti-slavery poet, John G. Whittier, wrote to Henry Clay, asking him to intervene in behalf of the Abolitionist. Clay communicated with his friend Niles, and probably would have paid the fine to ob- tain Garrison's release if measures to secure this end had not been earlier taken by other men. 1 This was of course before Abolition became the sectional firebrand which it was soon to be. Mr. Clay wasted little sympathy upon Mr. Garrison in later years. 1 Referred to in William Lloyd Garrison, by his children, Vol. I, pp. 189-190. In 1879 Whittier wrote from Amesbury to Thomas H. Clay, grandson of Henry Clay: "When W. L. Garrison was imprisoned in Baltimore, he wrote me a letter from his prison. I was anxious to do something for him. I had no knowledge of any person of influence in Baltimore and it occurred to me that Henry Clay, whom I greatly admired, might possibly exert an influence in his favor. I wrote him stating the case, and mentioned the fact that Garrison had been the first, or nearly the first, to nominate him for the presidency in New England. After some delay, I received a letter from thy honored grandfather, saying that from my representation, and from his own knowledge of Garrison, he had communicated with a friend in Baltimore (I think he mentioned Mr. Niles of the Register) asking him to inquire into the matter, and render on his account what aid he could to Mr. Garrison ; but he had just learned that he had been anticipated by a New York merchant [Arthur Tappan] who had paid the fine and set him at liberty. ... I have always regarded it as a very noble act on thy grandfather's part, characteristic of his noble and generous nature. Would to Heaven there could be found in all the South at this time one like him." 290 HENRY CLAY The truth is that his utterances covered both sides of the question, though there is not the least reason to doubt that he sincerely and earnestly desired the emancipation of the negroes and would have con- tributed in any way, which seemed to him feasible and right, to the bringing about of this object. Mr. Clay was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society, which was formed to return free people of color to Africa, and in 1836, upon the death of James Madison, he became its president. The speech delivered before it in the hall of the House of Representatives on January 20, 1827, to which reference has been made, was not anything like an Abolition document. He clearly said that the general government had no constitutional power to emancipate the slaves. It was a matter for the states, and "the states only which tolerate slavery." Yet he had visions of the extinction of the evil. They who reproached the society for its exertions were in a difficult position. " If they would repress all tendencies toward liberty and ultimate emancipa- tion, they must do more than put down the benev- olent efforts of this society. They must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon which thunder its annual joyous return. . . . They must blow out the moral lights around us, and extinguish that greatest torch of all which America presents to a benighted world, pointing the way to their rights, their liberties, and their happi- ness. And when they have achieved all these pur- poses their work will yet be incomplete. They must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason, and the love of liberty. Then, and SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 291 not till then, when universal darkness and despair prevail, can you perpetuate slavery, and repress all sympathies, and all humane and benevolent efforts among freemen, in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race doomed to bondage." * In his speech before the Kentucky Colonization Society at Frankfort on December 17, 1829, he asked earnestly, u Is there no remedy? Must we endure perpetually all the undoubted mischiefs of a state of slavery, as it affects both the free and bond por- tions of these states ? ' ' And on March 28, 1832, in a speech in the United States Senate, Mr. Clay expressed the hope that " at some day or other, however distant, and in some mode, the country would be rid of this, the darkest spot on its mantle." The conviction that the general government had no authority over slavery, and that it could be regulated only by state action in those states which tolerated it, was reaffirmed in the Senate in a speech on the public lands on June 20, 1832. 2 It became, in a sense, the platform upon which Mr. Clay stood until the development of events called for a fuller statement of his principles. Congress was now beginning to receive petitions praying its members to take various kinds of drastic action upon the slavery question. Their number rapidly increased and the mere presentation of them angered the Southerners so greatly that they made arrangements to forbid it in the House, and if pos- sible would have done so in the Senate. Against any violation of the right of petition, Clay protested 1 Colton, Vol. V, p. 339. 2 Ibid., p. 514. 292 HENRY CLAY vigorously in 1836. It had been his habit to bring in those petitions which were sent to him. He wished that "another organ" had been chosen but, when they were committed to his care, it was, he conceived, his duty to present them. This duty was "of a constitutional, almost a sacred character." l He did approve, though reluctantly, of James Buchanan's proposal, that when they were received it should be without debate. In a similar way Clay opposed Calhoun's plan to prohibit the circulation through the post-offices in the slave states of Abolition tracts and other argu- mentative material, on the ground that they were "incendiary." Jackson in his message to Cougress in December, 1835, had urged the passage of such a law. Clay saw only danger to the liberties of the people in this course. He was opposed to it " from the first to the last," and he hoped that a time would never come "when the general government should undertake to correct the evil by such reme- dies." In December, 1837, when petitions were being re- ceived on the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia, amid continued Southern protests, Clay exclaimed : "It has been said that this is not a case for argument. Not a case for argument ! What is it that lies at the bottom of all our free institutions? Argument, inquiry, reasoning, consideration, de- liberation. What question is there in human affairs so weak or so strong that it cannot be approached by argument and reason ? " On December 27, 1837, Calhoun in order to bring 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 36. SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 293 the question to an issue and ascertain where the senators stood, presented a series of resolutions, six in number, which were a declaration of the extreme state-rights view of slavery. They led to a fuller discussion of the subject than had yet been given to it in the United States Senate. It proceeded for many days, Calhoun leading in a bitter dictatorial spirit, all the while hinting of, when he did not di- rectly allude to, the dissolution of the Federal bond. " We allow ourselves to speak too frequently, and with too much levity of a separation of this Union," said Clay, by way of rebuke. " It is a terri ble word, to which our ears should not be familiarized. I de- sire to see in continued safety and prosperity this Union and no other Union. I go for this Union as it is, one and indivisible, without diminution. I will neither voluntarily leave it nor be driven out by force. Here, in my place, I shall contend for all the rights of the state which sent me here. I shall contend for them with undoubting confidence, and with the perfect conviction that they are safer in the Union than they would be out of the Union." On January 9, 1838, he moved seven resolutions which he wished to substitute for those of Mr. Cal- houn. They were in substance : (1) That slavery in those states in which it ex- ists is " subject to the exclusive power and control of those states respectively." (2) That petitions advocating Abolition in any state in which it exists upon coming to the Senate "shall be instantly rejected without debate." (3) That Abolition in the District of Columbia would be in violation of the good faith implied in 294 HENRY CLAY the cession by Virginia and Maryland to the United States of that District. In any event it could not be effected without the compensation of the owners, nor "without exciting a degree of just alarm and apprehension in the states recognizing slavery, far transcending, in mischievous tendency, any possible benefit." (4) That " slavery ought not to be abolished within the District of Columbia, " in the "deliberate judgment" of the Senate, and that "all sincere friends of the Union" should cease the agitation of the question. (5) That it would be "highly inexpedient" to abolish slavery in the territory of Florida because of the apprehension such action would excite in the slave states ; because the people of the territory have not asked it to be done ; and because it would be in "violation of a solemn compromise" fixing the line between slavery and anti-slavery at 36° 30' north latitude, except in the case of Missouri. (6) That Congress has no constitutional power to interfere with the domestic slave-trade. (7) That in spite of sectional agitation the Sen- ate "beholds with the deepest satisfaction every- where prevailing an unconquerable attachment to the Union as the sure bulwark of the safety, liberty and happiness of the people of the United States.'' From our point of view at this day, these declara- tions would seem sufficiently far from Abolitionist standards to conciliate the most devoted disciple of slavery ; but Calhoun would not be conciliated. The difference between him and the senator from Kentucky, he said, was "as wide as the poles. 1 Calhoun, Speeches, Vol. Ill, p. 140 et seq. )i l SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 295 The net result of the discussion was, of course, noth- ing but more discussion, both in and out of Con- gress. The demands of the Abolitionists became more insistent, and on February 7, 1839, Clay ad- dressed the Senate at considerable length in a care- fully prepared statement designed to have its influ- ence in the approaching presidential campaign. He is said to have taken counsel of his friend Senator Preston, of South Carolina, and the result was a speech which should have strengthened, and did unquestionably strengthen him and his party in the slave states. Clay spoke ostensibly to a petition of anti- Abolitionists, protesting against the move- ment for emancipation in the District of Columbia. He began by reiterating his opposition to the plan which Congress had adopted of refusing re- spectful attention to the petitions of the Aboli- tionists. It was inexpedient. It created " inju- rious impressions upon the minds of a large portion of the community." He addressed himself then to the Abolitionists or, as he called them, the " ultra- Abolitionists," who were making this demand about the District of Columbia, who insisted that Con- gress should free the slaves in the territory of Flor- ida, and who aimed to prevent the admission to the Union of any more slave states and to prohibit the traffic in slaves between the several states. To all of these propositions he opposed his arguments, and saw in the whole agitation the signs of a terrible civil war. Congress should not be petitioned on such subjects. "The free states," he said, "have no more power or right to interfere with institutions in the 296 HENRY CLAY slave states, confided to the exclusive jurisdiction of those states, than they would have to interfere with institutions existing in any foreign country. What would be thought of the formation of societies in Great Britain, the issue of numerous inflamma- tory publications, and the sending out of lecturers throughout the kingdom, denouncing and aiming at the destruction of any of the institutions of France ? Would they be regarded as proceedings warranted by good neighborhood ? . . . The slavery which exists among us is our affair, not theirs ; and they have no more just concern with it than they have with slavery as it exists throughout the world." There was not only no right to interfere ; there was also no possible way to deal with three million negroes suddenly given their freedom. There would at once be a war between the races, ending in the extermination or subjugation of one or the other of them. Moreover, it would be robbery to take away from its owners property valued at twelve hundred millions of dollars, and the taxes to raise such a fund could be justly assessed only upon the free states, " for it would be a mockery of all justice, and an outrage against all equity to levy any por- tion of the tax upon the slave states to pay for their own unquestioned property." Mr. Clay declared that the Abolitionists, instead of "advancing" their cause by their efforts, had " thrown back for half a century the prospect of any species of eman- cipation of the African race, gradual or immediate, in any of the states." They were doing more than this ; they were increasing the rigors of legislation against slaves in the slave states. He could see in SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 297 it all oiily terrible injustices and dangers. " One section," he predicted, u will stand in menacing and hostile array against the other. The collision of opinion will be quickly followed by the clash of arms. ' 7 And what would it be ? u A conquest without laurels, without glory ; a self, a suicidal conquest; a conquest of brothers over brothers, achieved by one over another portion of the de- scendants of common ancestors." " I am, Mr. President, no friend of slavery," Mr. Clay said as he proceeded. "The Searcher of all hearts knows that every pulsation of mine beats high and strong in the cause of civil liberty. Wherever it is safe and practicable, I desire to see every portion of the human family in the enjoyment of it. But I prefer the liberty of my own country to that of any other people ; and the liberty of my own race to that of any other race. The liberty of the descendants of Africa in the United States is incompatible with the safety and liberty of the European descendants. Their slavery forms an ex- ception, — an exception resulting from a stern and inexorable necessity — to the general liberty in the United States." This was not a very satisfactory statement from the standpoint of anti-slavery ; indeed, the least satisfactory of all which Clay had made. To many it seemed like an important surrender, although it was but an amplification of views that he had before expressed in only a little different way. Calhoun pretended to see in the declaration very marked concessions to the South. The discussions of the past few months could not seem barren of use, if 298 HENRY CLAY such changes had been effected in the thinking of the senator of Kentucky to whom he had listened u with pleasure." "There were many, very many, in the slave- holding states, ' ' said he, ' l who at the commence- ment of the controversy believed that slavery was an evil to be tolerated, because we could not escape from it, but not to be defended. That has passed away. We now believe that it has been a great blessing to both of the races — the European and African — which by a mysterious Providence have been brought together in the Southern section of the Union." Mr. Clay had, of course, said nothing of the kind. He did, however, foresee a great sectional rupture, if the Abolitionists would not forbear, a greater one than any which had been or ever could be precipi- tated by the tariff issue. He must be given credit for desiring most sincerely to avoid it. His love for the Union was at all times deep and earnest, and it was his natural course now to seek for some ground of conciliation, for which work his life is principally to be remembered. It was in relation to this speech, which Calhoun so much admired, that Clay uttered one of his most famous phrases. The noble sentiment might have been called forth by service in a worthier interest, but he had the merit, then as always, it may be believed, of think- ing that he was doing what the highest good de- manded. The words were started on their way to immortality at a Whig meeting in Philadelphia, where Senator Preston of South Carolina spoke. Clay, he said, had consulted him as to the propriety SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 299 of making the speech lest it might offend the rad- icals, but had himself definitely and promptly settled the matter. "I trust the sentiments and opinions are correct," the great leader observed; "I had rather be right than be President." Clay aimed to steer some safe middle course and his task was fraught with difficulty. On March 1, 184 L, he said in the Senate : " That there is danger impending, no one will deny. The danger is in ultraism ; the ultraism of a portion of the South on the one hand and from Abolition on the other. It is to be averted by a moderate but firm course ; not being led off into extremes on the one side, or fright- ened on the other." 1 He again very clearly expressed his views upon Abolition in a letter to Jacob Gibson in 1842. He referred his correspondent to his speech in the Sen- ate in 1839. " I regard the existence of slavery as an evil," he said ; " I regret it and wish that there was not one slave in the United States. But it is an evil which, while it affects the states only, or, prin- cipally, where it abounds, each state within which it is situated is the exclusive judge of what is best to be done with it, and no other state has a right to interfere in it. Kentucky has no right to interfere with the slavery of Virginia, and Ohio has no right to interfere with it in either. The jurisdiction of each state, where slavery exists, is among the re- served rights of the states. Congress possesses no power or authority to abolish it. Congress is in- vested with no power relating to it, except that which assumes its legitimate and continued exist- « Colton, Vol. VI, p. 273. 300 HENRY CLAY enee. . . . Although I believe slavery to be an evil, I regard it as a far less evil than would arise out of an immediate emancipation of the slaves of the United {States, and their remaining here mixed up in our communities. In such a contingency I believe that a bloody civil war would ensue, which would terminate only by the extinction of the black race. ' ' He ' ' regretted extremely the agitation of Aboli- tion in the free states. " It had " done no good, but harm." It would "do no good." "Abolition," he continued, "is a delusion which cannot last. It is impossible it should endure. What is it? In pursuit of a principle, a great principle if you please, it undertakes to tread down, and trample in the dust, all opposing principles, however sacred. It sets up the right of the people of one state to dic- tate to the people of other states. It arrays state against state. To make the black man free, it would virtually enslave the white man." As to what ultimately was to become of slavery he did not know. He adroitly referred the question to higher powers. "I have no doubt," said he, "that the merciful Providence which permitted its introduc- tion into our country, against the wishes of our an- cestors, will according to His own good pleasure and time, provide for its mitigation and termina- tion." His wish now was that the Abolitionists would "cease to agitate a topic which divides, distracts and inflames the community ; which tends to array man against man, state against state, and section against section, and which threatens the greatest of SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVEKY 301 all possible calamities which could befall this people, the dissolution of the Union of these states." ' To suppress the issue, which was pressing its way forward to displace the older ones, was the hope of all the leaders of Clay's generation, and the more it came up to disturb their relations with accustomed questions of politics the less likely were they to treat it patiently. It was not that Clay now loved slavery more, but that he was tired of having it stuck like a goad into the flank of everything, which led to his seeming change of view. Thus did he hope to stifle the movement and reestablish equa- nimity of feeling both North and South. There was no question as to Henry Clay being the choice of the Whig party for the presidency at the election of 1844. There had been quite enough experimentation with other men, and all party senti- ment was directed toward his nomination for the office. "As far as I can judge," W. P. Mangum wrote to Clay on June 15, 1842, u I think the cause is constantly brightening. All eyes are turned in a single direction. The indecision, vacillation and the manifest want of good faith, not to say common honesty, on the part of those who administer the government have fixed the public eye upon the ad- mitted head of the Whig party, with an intensity of interest that I am very sure has never happened be- fore in my time." Mr. Clay's leaving the Senate appeared to be but his first step toward the presidency. Never had he seemed so strong, so preeminent, so indispensable. Never were his friends so many and so devoted. 1 Private Correspondence, p. 463 et seq. 302 HENRY CLAY The next two years were to see such outbursts of love and loyalty as have probably uever been evoked by any other public man in a democracy. He came to be known as the " Old Prince," and wherever he went he was the object of the most remarkable dem- onstrations. His return to Lexington after his re- tirement from the Senate in 1842 was signalized by another great barbecue. In the open air with thou- sands crowded about him, he responded to the fol- lowing sentiment, which was proposed by the pre- siding officer : " Henry Clay — farmer of ' Ashland,' patriot and philanthropist — the American statesman and un- rivaled orator of the age — illustrious abroad, be- loved at home : in a long career of eminent public service, often, like Aristides, he breasted the raging storm of passion and delusion, and by offering him- self a sacrifice, saved the Republic ; and now like Cincinnatus and Washington, having voluntarily retired to the tranquil walks of private life, the grateful hearts of his countrymen will do him ample justice ; but come what may, Kentucky will stand by him, and still continue to cherish and defend, as her own, the fame of a son who has emblazoned her escutcheon with immortal renown." In this speech, which was principally a review and defense of his own life, with allusions to the distressing financial situation and the attitude of President Tyler toward the party which had elected him, not one word was said about slavery. Clay ended the discourse with a spirited appeal. " Whigs," he exclaimed, "arouse from the ignoble supineness which encompasses you ; awake from the SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY .303 lethargy ill which you lie bound ; cast from you that unworthy apathy which seems to make you indif- ferent to the fate of your country. . . . You have been disappointed, deceived, betrayed ; shame- fully deceived and betrayed. But will you there- fore also prove false and faithless to your country, or obey the impulses of a just and patriotic indigna- tion ? As for Captain Tyler, he is a mere snap, a flash in the pan ; pick your Whig flints and try your rifles again." The conclusion of the speech was marked by "tremendous cheering." The audience, it is said, was the largest which had ever been assembled in Kentucky, and, while Mr. Clay specifically declared that he himself had no hand in the movement to make him the next President, this was the unmis- takable intention of all his friends. "That lam thankful and grateful, profoundly grateful," he said, "for these manifestations of confidence and attachment, I will not conceal or deny. But I have been and mean to remain a passive, if not an indif- ferent spectator." At meetings in many states he was nominated for the office. Letters and addresses poured in upon him at " Ashland," and he was in- vited to visit all parts of the Union. In September, 1842, he addressed a convention of Whigs at Day- ton, O., thought to number 100,000 people. He moved from place to place like some Roman con- queror. On October 1st, on his way to Indianapolis, he spoke at Richmond, Ind., a region which con- tained a number of Quaker families, actively inter- ested in Abolition. A Friend named Mendenhall came forward at this place to interrogate Mr. Clay 304. ilEXEY CLAY on the subject of slavery, and to ask him to liberate bis own blacks. This device was plainly intended, many thought, to embarrass the candidate ; at any rate, it very certainly had this effect. In the first place, the incident called attention to the fact that Clay was a slaveholder. And after that, if he should avow a wish to emancipate his slaves, he would probably — in the state of public opinion at the time — be set upon by the South ; while if he re- fused, he would do further affront to the Abolition- ists of the North. He attacked the question boldly as was his wont. The Quaker ran the risk of harsh treatment at the hands of the crowd, but the speaker pleaded for his security. Clay made it clear that to present a pe- tition at all was unusual procedure, and that to pre- sent it while he was on a friendly visit to a neigh- boring state must seem inhospitable. However, he desired u no concealment" of his opinions. "I look upon it [slavery] as a great evil," he con- tinued, " and deeply lament that we have derived it from the parental government, and from our an- cestors. I wish every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors." If he were organizing society anew, there could be no slavery in it, but that was not the question now. It was here and we must reckon with it, and, great as he thought its evils to be, " they are noth- ing," he declared, " absolutely nothing in compari- son with the far greater evils which would inevi- tably flow from a sudden, general, and indiscrimi- nate emancipation." He spoke again of the danger of race wars, and then told of the difficulties that SLAYEEY AND ANTI-SLAYEKY 305 would cod front him, were he to decide to liberate his own slaves. A half dozen of them were "a hea\ r y charge " upon him by reason of their age and decrepitude. To free them would be to consign them to starvation. Another class would not accept their freedom if he should give it to them. His man Charles who accompanied him then, and who had done so on former journeys in the United States and Canada, had had a thousand opportunities to escape but he had no desire to do so. Indeed, when some Abolitionists had approached him ou the point, he had said that he would not leave Mr. Clay for all Canada. " Excuse me, Mr. Mendeuhall," Mr. Clay continued, " for saying that my slaves are as well fed and clad, look as sleek and hearty, and are quite as civil and respectful in their demeanor, and as little disposed to wound the feelings of anj^ one, as you are." He owned about fifty slaves, worth, probably, $15,000. "To turn them loose upon society without any means of subsistence or support," he continued, "would be an act of cruelty." He respected the motives of Abolition- ists, who were rational in the formation and expres- sion of their views, although he wished they would refrain from agitating the question. He had many friends among them, but they were not "mono- maniacs," such as those seemed to be who had joined their names to Mr. MendenhalPs upon the petition. The speech was received by the crowd as a master- piece, and was published everywhere with acclama- tion. It seemed to render Clay's position secure iu the view of his friends and the way to the presi- 306 HENKY CLAY dency opened clear before him, especially as Tyler continued to antagonize the Whig party, soon mak- ing the breach irreparable. Congress, after Clay had left it, wrestled with the tariff and the land sale distribution scheme, which were combined. The President twice vetoed the measure. The session seemed likely to close without any provision being made for raising the revenues necessary for the reg- ular conduct of the government; but finally after great party asperity, the majority agreed to drop the distribution scheme, which was the especial ob- ject of Tyler's ire, and to adopt a protective tariff, known as the Tariff of 1842. In the House John Quincy Adams was making his historic contest for the right of petition against slavery, which Clay thoroughly approved, though he "deeply regretted" it in some particulars. 1 When Giddings resigned his seat because the House condemned him for presenting an anti-slavery petition, and went home to Ohio, only to be returned by greater majorities, Clay gave him his warmest sympathy. Such proscription he could never be brought to favor, and, though he was not to be the champion of such a cause, there is no reason to think that his heart was not at all times right in reference to this subject. Slavery had come before the nation in many ways in the past few years, but it was to be heard from in a still more ominous tone in the Texan contest, now impending. Clay had a record on this question. It will be remembered that in 1820, while he was a member of the House of Representatives, he attacked 1 Speech at Lexington upon his return home in 1842. SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 307 the administration of President Monroe for having surrendered the right to this country in the Florida Treaty. It was his contention that it had been in- cluded in the territory acquired from France by the Louisiana Purchase. In 1827, while he was Secre- tary of State under Adams, he instructed Poinsett, the first United States Minister to the new republic of Mexico, to arrange to buy Texas from that coun- try. The region, in the next few years, became the scene of much lawless adventure, to which the Southern slaveholders of the United States contrib- uted a great deal, with a view to increasing their influence by its annexation. Further attempts were made to obtain the country by purchase, but these failing, the people, aided by American fili- busters, undertook to break away from Mexican suzerainty, and establish a separate government in the hope of joining the Union in that way. A state of war existed for a long time between Mexico and the Texan "patriots," and the government of the United States was asked, of course, to recognize their independence. Clay, though he had on many occasions proven himself the friend of struggling republics, had gained much in experience on this subject, and he inwardly revolted, as well he might, at the spec- tacle in Texas. He aimed to restrain the govern- ment from a precipitate course, both by speech and act. In 1837 the Texans offered themselves for sale to Van Buren but he declined their advances. Northern legislatures adopted resolutions protesting against such a policy, and it was seen to be a contest between slavery and anti-slavery, likely at any mo- 308 HEXKY CLAY nient to assume the most dangerous appearance. Tyler took up the cause of Texas and the South, but Webster still had a place in the cabinet, and op- posed the step. The result of the elections in the autumn of 1842, so unfavorable to the Whigs, gave new zeal to the President, who now thought that his future fortune lay, perhaps, in the direction of the Democracy, and the way was clear when Webster, no longer able to continue in such company, left the State Depart- ment in May, 1843. Upshur, of Virginia, who be- came Secretary of State, ardently espoused the cause of Texas and the Southern slaveholders, who had pushed into the country to control its destinies. The work went forward stealthily. The Senate was canvassed with a view to getting enough members to approve a treaty of annexation. Mexico pro- tested and threatened war, but this did not avail to deter the administration. When Upshur was killed, by the explosion of a gun, on the United States frigate Princeton, Tyler threw himself entirely into the arms of the enemy, and invited Calhoun to be- come Secretary of State, an office which he accepted, singular as the relation must have seemed to him, with the ostensible purpose of carrying through this extraordinary plot for expanding the area of slavery. Meanwhile Clay continued to travel and address his countrymen. When he came home from his autumn tour in Ohio and Indiana in 1842, he planned a trip to New Orleans which was accomplished in the winter, and which included a large number of cities and towns, where he met with the usual marks of attention and enthusiasm. Great crowds as- SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 309 seuibled to welcome him everywhere. The summer of 1843 was devoted to rest and recuperation at '" Ashland." In the ensuing winter he left home for a trip through the southeastern states, going from New Orleaus to Augusta, Charleston, Raleigh and intermediate places, where his followers crowded to greet and acclaim him. He seemed to be the hero of the age. He still spoke on the old Whig- issues, unwilling to believe that auy other called for public attention, though the Texas question, with slavery behind it, pressed insistently for recognition. It was generally expected that Van Buren, who had visited Clay at " Ashland," would be the op- posing candidate in the ensuing campaign. Tyler, in spite of his open bid for the distinction, had made no progress in winning the popular esteem. Clay and Van Buren together agreed that they would aim to avoid any declaration on the subject of Texas. If it were necessary, however, they would make a statement in disapproval of annexa- tion. Clay was in Raleigh, N. C, swinging around through states which seemed to need the invigora- tion of his presence, when Calhoun and the Texan envoys, on April 12, 1844, signed the treaty by which Texas was to be joined to the United States. He could restrain himself no longer and on April 17th, the National Intelligencer in Washington pub- lished what at once came to be known as his " Raleigh Letter." He reviewed his own connec- tion with the Texas matter. The country was now gone from us. The recent recognition of the inde- pendence of Texas by the United States had not im- paired Mexico's claims, if she chose to continue to 310 HENKY CLAY assert them, and there was evidence that she did. By acquiring the territory, we would at once acquire a foreign war. As for him he would not favor an- nexation at any such price. Moreover, the move- ment met with disapproval in many states, and the need was for harmony, not for new causes of discord and strife. It were vain to attempt to strengthen the South in this way. The North could retaliate by annexing Canada. Sane as the views expressed in it seemed to be, the letter naturally met the favor of the extremists in neither section of the Union. The course of the " pacificator" was becoming more and more diffi- cult to pursue. Doubtless, however, the bulk of the Whig party believed the manifesto to be a cor- rect expression of their views. Van Buren pub- lished a letter in the Globe opx^osing annexation on not very different grounds. Those who urged it, however, had fortified themselves with letters from Andrew Jackson, whose voice still had the tone of command. Thus the matter stood, when the Whig National Convention met in Baltimore on May 1st. The treaty was in the hands of the Senate awaiting a two-thirds vote. All the Whig leaders were gathered together for this great meeting ; they nominated Clay with shouts that shook the build- ing, and indeed started a panic lest it should fall to the ground. As the candidate for Vice- President, they chose Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey. Webster had now returned to the party fold and added his voice to the general chorus of enthusiasm and praise. Three weeks later the Democrats met, also in SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 311 Baltimore. The party was now completely in the hands of Calhoun and his friends. Van Buren after a few ballots was set aside in favor of James K. Polk of Tennessee, a rabid annexationist, to whose name was added, for Vice-President, that of George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, in order to give power to the ticket in the Middle states. The annexation of Texas was joined with a demand for the reoccupa- tion of Oregon, and plans were shrewdly laid for a campaign founded on an expansionist programme, designed to gain great popularity. Tyler assembled his " corporal's guard'' of office-holders, and was duly nominated to succeed himself, but before long, as he saw, there was nothiDg for him to do except to withdraw in favor of the Democratic candidate. It was an extraordinary campaign, conducted with great spirit and energy, and marked by the same enthusiasm with which the people had been inspired four years before. 1 Harrison was almost deified as a translated leader whose mantle had been taken up only to be trampled in the dust by Tyler, of whom there was nothing good to be said. The raccoon was revived as a party emblem, and every effort was made to connect this presidential contest with the last, in the hope of sweeping the country in the same conclusive manner. 1 " Both parties entered the field well organized and animated with high hopes. The recollection of their success in 1840 in- spired the Whigs with courage, while a hitter resentment for what they deemed the treachery of Mr. Tyler which had snatched from them the fruits of their victory at the last presi- dential election, and their ardent attachment to their chivalrio and gallant leader, kindled a zeal which spread through all ranks of the party and which approached almost to fanaticism." — Life and Times of Silas Wright, by Jabez Hammond, p. 496. 312 HENRY CLAY Everywhere was seen tlie Clay Minstrel, a book of campaign songs written for such airs as ' ' The Star Spangled Banner," "John Anderson, My Jo," "Ole Dan Tucker," " Rosin the Bow," and " Royal Charlie. ' ' For example, there was a working-man' s song, in which no trade seems to have been for- gotten, to the tune of " There's Nae Luck About the House. ' ' These were some of the stanzas : " The Laboring Men that want more work, And higher wages too, Will help to put in Henry Clay With better times in view. They'll saw and chop, and grub and dig, And shovel, and shovel away, And shovel, shovel, shovel, shovel, And vote for Henry Clay ! 11 We want no clothing ready made From England, or from France, We've Tailors here who know their trade They ought to have a chance. They'll cut, and baste, and hem and press And stitch, and stitch away, And stitch, stitch, stitch, stitch, And vote for Henry Clay ! " The Coopers know when Farmers thrive Their trade is always best, And so they'll go with one accord For Harry of the West. They'll dress and raise, and truss and croze, And hoop, and hoop away And hoop, hoop, hoop, hoop, And vote for Henry Clay ! " To "Auld Lang Syne" the Whigs sang these lines ; SLAVERY AXD ANTI-SLAVERY 313 ' ' Leave vain regrets for errors past Nor cast the ship away, But nail your colors to the mast And strike for Harry Clay. And strike for Harry Clay, my boys, And strike for Harry Clay, And nail your colors to the mast And strike for Harry Clay ! " There were in any campaign songs to the tune of " Ole Dan Tucker." One began : " The moon was shining silver bright, The stars with glory crowned the night, High on a limb that ' same ole coon ' Was singing to himself this tune — Chorus : 11 Get out of the way, you're all unluoky, Clear the track for Old Kentucky." But many unusual events occurred, again tending to show that some malign fate, altogether beyond human reach, was at work to prevent Henry Clay from attaining the presidency. In the first place, there was the singular fatality of being bound up with an expausionist issue to which he was or seemed to be opposed. Then there was the Liberty party which had nominated James G. Birney, a mere fleck on the sky, but full of ominous threat under the direction of devoted men determined to give their support to no candidate who did not favor the un- conditional emancipation of the slaves. Then, too, an extraordinary fraud was practiced in Pennsyl- vania, where it was made to appear that the Demo- cratic rather than the Whig party was the safeguard 314 HENRY CLAY of protection. A governor was to be elected there in October. It was felt that as Pennsylvania went the nation would go, and the state became a bitterly contested battle-ground. Though Polk was a free-trader, few knew this, or indeed very much else regarding him. 1 During the campaign it was a familiar Whig device to ask, u Who is Polk?" a question which was al- ways answered by a loud guffaw. Dallas had been nominated for the express purpose of forward- ing a deception on the tariff issue in Pennsylvania and the Eastern states. "Polk, Dallas, and the Tariff of 1842," a measure which had gained the approval of the manufacturers, was a combination of words appearing everywhere in popular speech, in the newspapers and on banners and transparen- cies carried in processions. These dexterous campaigners sometimes added the words: " We dare the Whigs to repeal it." It speaks not well for the intelligence of the people of Pennsylvania that a considerable number of them should have abandoned Clay, the very prototype of the ' ' Ameri- can system," in favor of a party which had always opposed protection, and which in 1846 actually did repeal the law whereby, through their cries in that state, they had elected Polk two years before. The Democratic candidate for governor, Shunk, was elected in October by a majority of 4,397 and the 1 u He was a comparatively unknown man, although he had served as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He there- fore excited no antagonism." — A History of Presidential Elections by Edward Stan wood, p. 157. Governor Letcher of Kentucky wrote to Mr. Buchanan : " Polk ! Great God, what a nomination ! " SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 315 morale of the Whig party throughout the country was brokeu for the national contest to follow in November. Then, too, there must be a revival of the bargain and sale story. Jackson was dying at the " Her- mitage," but he raised himself to repeat this foul slander that it might again do service, if it would, in the campaign of 1844. Clay aud his friends evidently thought that it still contained daugers for them, and they again bent themselves to the task of refuting it. The progress of the Texas question was such that it injected itself into the campaign to the exclusion of almost every other issue in the South as well as in those Northern states in which the Abolitionist ele- ment had strength. On June 8th, the Senate by a vote of thirty-five to sixteen refused its assent to the treaty of annexation, and a little later adjourned, leaving Tyler, if he could, to find some other way of effecting his object. As the campaign progressed, Clay's friends, especially in the South, grew anxious for his fate, and he was, wisely or unwisely, induced to qualify the statements which he had pronounced in the " Raleigh Letter." He did this in correspondence with Stephen F. Miller of Tuscaloosa, Ala. Some had said that when he had spoken of opposition to annexation in the North, which he wished the nation to heed, it was an allusion to the Abolition- ists. This Clay emphatically denied. It was " per- fectly absurd." " No man in the United States has been half as much abused by them [the Abolition- ists] as I have been." He added : "Personally I 316 HENRY CLAY could have no objection to the annexation of Texas ; but I certainly should be unwilling to see the exist- ing Union dissolved, or seriously jeoparded, for the sake of acquiring Texas. If any one desires to know the leading and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of the Union will fur- nish him the key." In another letter to Mr. Miller he went on to say : " Far from having any personal objection to the an- nexation of Texas, I should be glad to see it without dishonor, without war, and upon just and fair terms. I do not think that the subject of slavery ought to affect the question one way or the other." He had never said that it should, but the Liberty party men, most of whom had been Whigs, and fel t that they had a greater right to be his judges on this account, aimed now to prevent his election by any means in their power. It was a difficult matter for Clay to explain his " Alabama Letters" in the North, though he es- sayed the feat. He was subjected to the charge of inconsistency by snch leaders as Giddings of Ohio, to whom he wrote several "private and confiden- tial " epistles, explanatory of the statements he had made to his friend in Tuscaloosa. He was sorry, he said, writing from "Ashland," on September 11, 1844, to know that there was any misunderstanding in Ohio. " It was not my intention," he continued, II to vary the ground in the smallest degree which I had assumed in my Raleigh letter. It had been rep- resented to me that in that letter I had displayed a determined opposition to the annexation of Texas to the United States, although the whole Union might SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 317 be in favor of it, and it could be peacefully and honorably effected upon fair and j ust terms. It was my purpose in those Alabama letters to say that no personal or private motives prompted me to oppose annexation, but that my opinion in oppositiou to it was founded solely upon public and general con- siderations. I, therefore, said that if by common consent of the Union, without national dishonor, and without war, and upon just conditions, the ob- ject of annexation could be accomplished, I did not wish to be considered as standing in opposition to the wishes of the whole confederacy, but, on the sup- position stated, would be glad to see those wishes gratified. Could I say less ? " If three such states as Ohio, Massachusetts and Ver- mont " were to manifest a decided opposition to the annexation of Texas," he said positively, " it ought not to be annexed to the United States. ' ' He was in a siugular position, he wrote to Giddings. ' ' Whilst at the South I am represented as a liberty man, at the North I am described as an ultra supporter of slavery, when in fact I am neither one nor the other." l While the entire vote for Birney was small, the activity of the party was undoubtedly effective in chilling the anti-slavery Whigs in Ohio as well as in New York, where the margin was very close. It was at any rate a pleasure for the Abolitionists to assert that but for them he would have been elected, though the declaration could have been made quite as positively by other interests engaged in the work 1 Giddings letters published in the Cleveland Herald in February, 1879. 318 HENRY CLAY of defeating the hopes of his party in this remark- able campaign. In Pennsylvania, if there had been no defection of the protectionists, Clay would have fared much better. Having that state, and with the help of Georgia, where the vote was also very close, he would have been elected. AYithout the "Alabama Letters," which were thought to have done him harm in the North, he very possibly would have carried a smaller number of the South- ern states. It seemed impossible to believe that a leader like Clay, known of all men and deeply be- loved as he was by so many of them, could have been defeated by such an opponent as Polk. But so it was to be. The Whigs waited day after day, always with hope and a conviction that fuller returns would put a different aspect upon affairs. Even for the Democrats it was a victory over which they did not feel able to exult, so small were the majorities, and so doubtful did they appear to be of the justice of the result. Clay had carried Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Ken- tucky, Tennessee and Ohio — in all he had 105 elec- toral votes. Polk had carried Maine, New Hamp- shire, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas and Mich- igan, — in all 170 votes. Several of these states were won by small pluralities : New York 5,106 Pennsylvania 6,332 Virginia 5,873 Georgia 1,944 SLAVERY AND ANTI SLAVERY 319 Indiana 2,344 Louisiana 699 Michigan 3,466 There were charges of fraud in at least four of them, and honest and searching investigation might have changed the verdict in Clay's favor. It is credibly reported that places of business were closed or deserted, while the astounding news was dis- cussed in subdued and funereal tones, and that men and women wept. Such disappointment and grief were never seen after any election in this country. Clay's friends entirely despaired of the republic. Their last hope for it was fled. He seemed 4 ' A great man struggling with the storms of fate, And nobly falling with a falling state." Letters poured in upon him from entire strangers in all parts of the Union, offering him their sym- pathy and assuring him of their continued love and esteem. A Pennsylvanian did not hesitate to de- clare that Mr. Clay had " nine- tenths of the virtue, intelligence and respectability of the nation on his side." Millard Fillmore was "unmanned." He had "no courage or resolution." "All is gone," he wrote. " The last hope which hung first upon the city of New York, and then upon Virginia is finally dissipated, and I see nothing but despair de- picted on every countenance." ! To Senator Preston of South Carolina the result was a " public calamity." There were prayers for the country which had been so basely betrayed. One wrote : * i I have 1 Private Correspondence, p. 479. 320 HENRY CLAY buried a Revolutionary father who poured out his blood for his country ; I have followed a mother, brothers, sisters and children to the grave ; and, although I hope I have felt under all these afflic- tions, as a son, a brother and a father should feel, yet nothing has so crushed me to the earth and de- pressed my spirits as the result of our late political contest." The grief, said another, " extended itself through all ages, sexes and conditions from lisping infancy to hoary age." " Great God ! is it possible," exclaimed a friend in London, when the news came to him. "The hopes of the wise and of the worthy of the new and of the old world rested upon you." An old sea-captain in Providence was heard to say: "Could my life insure the success of Henry Clay, I would freely lay it down this day." A lady in Maryland sent him a counterpane with complimentary Hues embroidered upon it. It was the work of her own hands in the ninety-third year of her age. The women of Virginia set themselves to the task of raising money for the erection of a statue of the great leader, and employed Joel T. Hart to execute it. The gold and silver artisans of New York sent him a splendid silver vase, and the representatives of many industries which he had aided by his advocacy of the protective system during his long congressional career, united to honor and befriend him. Whig party organiza- tions met and adopted resolutions which were duly forwarded to "Ashland," some beautifully en- grossed and some in silver caskets. In short, every SLAVEEY AND ANTI-SLAVERY 321 possible testimony of continued popular devotiou came to lighten the burdens of defeat. A gold pen was sent from New York, and a casket of jewels for Mrs. Clay from Philadelphia, with a book containing several thousand names of both sexes, young and old, handsomely printed and bound by a publishing house in that city, entitled, " A Testimonial of Gratitude and Affection to Henry Clay." It was probably true, as one correspondent remarked, that Clay had " long since passed that point when office could confer additional celebrity, or add one inch to the noble preeminence which history will assign to you." He himself was more bitterly disappointed than any but the members of his family and his closest friends could know. It is stated that on the night the news of his defeat reached "Ashland," Mrs. Clay took him in her arms and said as they wept together: " My husband, this ungrateful people can never truly appreciate you while living. Thank God, they have left you in the bosom of your family, in this your dear 'Ashland.' " Such a victory, be- lieving as Mr. Clay did, was to him, as it was to John Quincy Adams, "a dark shade" cast upon the nation's "prospects of futurity." "I had hoped," wrote Adams, " that under your guidance the country would have recovered from the down- ward tendency into which it has been sinking." ' It was not in any spirit of personal vainglory, there- fore, that Clay wrote to a friend : "The late blow that has fallen upon our country is very heavy. I hope that she may recover from it, but I confess 1 Private Correspondence, p. 520. 322 HENRY CLAY that the prospect ahead is dark and discouraging. I am afraid that it will be yet a long time, if ever, that the people recover from the corrupting in- fluence and effects of Jacksonism. I pray God to give them a happy deliverance. ' ' In what ways he would or could have changed the course of the nation by coming to the President's office in 1844, and whether or not the experience would have improved his place in history, are ques- tions which may be discussed but cannot be cer- tainly determined by any amount of debate. CHAPTEE XII THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE This extraordinary outburst of popular love was not soon to consume itself by its own unusual ardor. In no way was Clay more sincerely touched than by a movement, secretly begun and prosecuted, to re- lieve him from pressing financial necessities which promised him a disturbed old age. He had once before been the victim of financial misfortunes, not brought upon him by acts of his own. Now agaiu, through the reverses of a son engaged in the hemp business in Kentucky, he was greatly em- barrassed. His prolonged absences in Washington had compelled him to neglect his private affairs and a heavy mortgage encumbered u Ashland." The large demands made upon him led him to wonder whether he would not be obliged to part with his beloved and now famous home. Suddenly, through the foresight and care of vigi- lant friends in all parts of the Union, relief came to him. One day in 1845, when Mr. Clay was about to make a payment on a note, a banker in Lexing- ton informed him that the money was at hand to extinguish all his debts, including the mortgage on " Ashland." "Who did this?" Clay asked with deep emotion. The banker said that he was not at liberty to-tell, if indeed he could ascertain the names 324 HENRY CLAY of the givers ; it was sufficient to know that they were not his " enemies." ' Clay debated the matter with his friends. He was loath to accept such a gift, especially as he knew not whom to thank for it, but he determined to take it gratefully. A friend in New Orleans wrote him: "In all ages sigual public services have been rewarded by national benefactions. In our own day Sieyes and Wellington have had grants of domaius j the debts of Pitt have been paid by Parliament ; Fox did not disdain the assistance of his friends. Your memory will furnish innumer- able other instances. If republics are ungrateful, it is the more necessary that private individuals should perform the duty neglected by the public authorities." a Indeed, there was no other course to pursue. The gift appeared as an already discharged obligation, and that was the end of it. The sum subscribed seems to have amounted to about $50,000. The movement was directed in New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, and with so much delicacy and tact that neither then nor since has any one revealed particular information con- cerning it. It was a spontaneous tribute from sin- cere hearts. 3 The tears started into Clay's eyes whenever he thought of this last mark of the love of his friends. To the charge that Clay had no hope to offer to those who were opposed to slavery, his response 1 Col ton, Vol. I, p. 44. 2 Private Correspondence, p. 528. 3 Last Seven Fears, p. 40. THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 325 was a continued interest in the work of the Coloni- zation Society. He believed that some of the ne- groes, at least, whenever they were freed, could be returned to Africa. As for the ultimate extinction of the evil, it could come only at some " distant day," as he had said in one of his " Alabama Let- ters," and no other method presented itself to his mind than the inscrutable and a not very certain in- terposition of Providence, who had blessed the na- tion in its past history, and whose favors we must pray Him to continue to bestow. Tyler found in Clay's defeat an endorsement of his annexation policy, and he pursued it obstinately. An effort was now made to accomplish this object by joint resolution. A two-thirds vote could not be obtained in the Senate ; a resolution needed but a simple majority in both houses. On January 25, 1845, this measure passed the House, with an amend- ment, approved by Stephen A. Douglas among oth- ers, specifying that such states as should be formed out of the territory acquired, if they lay north of the Missouri Compromise line, should be free. The senators still balked, thinking that their body was being deprived of a constitutional func- tion ; but they were brought to favor the reso- lution, and Tyler, trusting nothing to Polk, hurried off an envoy before his term expired. The Texas Senate, by joint resolution, approved the plan to join the United States, and such determined and high-handed methods were soon used, both by the Texan government, and by Polk and his advisers, that war with Mexico, as Clay had predicted, inevitably ensued. The administration, having 326 HENRY CLAY linked the Oregon with the Texas question, was also in a fair way to involve the country in a war with England in its desire to obey the popular de- mand of " Fifty -four forty or fight." Fortunately this difficulty was disposed of in a peaceful manner, and the country could give its attention to its war with Mexico. It seemed an outrageous proceeding to Clay and to all thinking men, except those who were the devoted allies of slavery. During the late winter and spring of 1846, he had again gone to New Orleans, where he was so much valued and esteemed. Returning in April he stopped, on his way up the river, at St. Louis. There, and everywhere, he was a mark for popular homage. The legislature of Kentucky desired to reelect him to the Senate, but he declined on the ground that he needed rest a ud that his public life was done. The winter of 1846- 1847 was again spent in New Orleans. During this visit he was induced to address a meeting called in behalf of the sufferers from the potato famine in Ireland, which he did with much feeling and elo- quence. " Shall it [this appeal to the sympathy of American hearers] be in vain ? " he asked. " Shall starving Ireland— the young and the old — dying women and children — stretch out their hands to us for bread and find no relief? Will not this great city, the world's storehouse of an exhaustl ess supply of all kinds of food, borne to its overflowing ware houses by the Father of Waters, act on this occasion in a manner worthy of its high destiny and obey the noble impulses of the generous hearts of its blessed inhabitants % ' ' The speech, being generally THE LAST GEEAT COMPROMISE 327 reported, awakened feelings of deep gratitude in Ireland, as well as elsewhere. Even in this day children in Ireland are told of Henry Clay and his noble efforts in behalf of their country in that hour of need. With his deep disappointment as to the course of public events, another crushing sorrow came to Clay, — the death of his son, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Clay, at the battle of Buena Vista. He had now lost all of his daughters and this son, the third, was a favorite, deeply loved. He had been educated at West Point and had later entered the law, giving promise of great ability. Upon the outbreak of the Mexican War he offered his services, and became the lieutenant- colonel of a Kentucky regiment in the army of General Taylor. The old statesman was in danger of breaking down under this afflic- tion and in the summer, after a sojourn in the Virginia mountains, he went to Cape May, X. J. He wished to enjoy rest on the seacoast and the sea- baths in which he had never before had the opportunity to indulge. Hither his friends followed him. A delegation arrived from New York to say : " We come in the name of 400,000 persons to ask you once more to visit our metropolis. Permit us, we pray you, sir, to announce to our friends, with the speed of lightning, that Henry Clay will come to them. The great aggregate heart of our city is throbbing to bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to its hospitalities.' ' Others invited him to Philadelphia, New Haven and Trenton. He addressed them in a speech, tell- 328 HENRY CLAY ing them the reason tor his journey. He spoke with deep emotion of the death of his son, once covering his face with his hands for some minutes, until he could recover himself. It was his wish to dispose completely of the thought that he had any political object in view, for there were already loud demands that in 1848 he should again be the presidential candidate of the Whig party. He was deeply touched "that I a private, and. humble citizen, without an army, without a navy, without even a constable's staff, should have been met at every step of my progress with the kindest manifes- tations of feeling, — manifestations of which at pres- ent a monarch or an emperor might well be proud. " He begged his visitors from the various cities to re- trace their steps, " charged and surcharged with my warmest feelings of gratitude. ' ' The Whigs were not skilfully led in Congress, and they had an unpopular cause in opposition to the extension of the national domain, but they won an important victory in the elections of 1846. They converted a large Democratic into a small Whig majority in the House, and the party felt itself materially invigorated. The war proceeded so easily and triumphantly that Mexico was soon com- pletely at our mercy, and many of the slaveholders, by whom the contest had been begun and for whose advantage it had been waged, thought seriously of annexing not only Texas but Mexico itself. Clay was called upon from all sides for his advice. On November 13, 1847, with General Scott standing in Mexico City, the old statesman addressed an im- mense assembly which had gathered in Lexington THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 329 to hear hiin. The war was an " unnatural war." He spoke of its slaughter and of its expense. " Every war," said he, " unhinges society, disturbs its peaceful and regular industry, and scatters poison and seeds of disease and immorality, which continue to germinate and diffuse their baneful in- fluences long after it has ceased." He told how the nation had become involved in this war. It was the inevitable result of the annexation of Texas. He opposed even the suggestion of the annexation of Mexico, or of any other conquered country. In this case the people professed and cherished a differ- ent religion which would make the undertaking still more hazardous. ' ' Those whom God and geography have pronounced should live asunder," said he, "could never be permanently and harmoniously united together." Moreover, this Union did not need Mexico for its own " happiness or greatness." We already had space, and to spare, for all our inhabitants. He had opposed the annexation of Texas " with honest zeal and most earnest exertions," but being ours, it would be folly to throw her "back upon her own independence, or into the arms of Mexico." As for the annexation of Mexico it, too, was not to be thought of by any honorable man. " Of all the dangers and misfortunes which could befall this nation," said he, " I should regard that of its becom- ing a warlike and conquering power the most dire- ful and fatal." By such a course we would affix "to our name and national character, a similar if not a worse stigma than that involved in the parti- tion of Poland." At the conclusion of the speech 330 HEXEY CLAY Clay offered eight resolutions, expressive of his views. The seventh of these was as follows : "Resolved, that we do positively and emphatic- ally disclaim and disavow any wish or desire on our part to acquire any foreign territory whatever for purposes of propagating slavery, or of introduc- ing slaves from the United States into such foreign territory. ' ' The Whigs of the country were invited to meet and express their feelings and opinions upon the subject, and they responded at once, endorsing Clay and his resolutions in the most emphatic terms. In the large cities the meetings attained enormous pro- portions. His voice came as a " trumpet blast," said an address adopted by a great assemblage in New York. In that city his Lexington speech was printed in gold letters and elegantly bound, with a frontispiece portrait. He was shown standing upon a rock. At his right was a sailor holding the Amer- ican flag ; on the left an artisan, emblematic of the peaceful pursuits which his policies had done so much to cultivate. That the party everywhere looked to Clay as its leader, and poured upon, indeed overwhelmed him with, expressions of its affection and confidence, led him to say naught in discouragement of proposals to bring his name before the nominating convention in 1848. Thurlow Weed, who had cheated Clay out of the prize in 1840, and taken up a military candi- date, now again sought a returning "hero" from the Mexican battle-fields. Zachary Taylor seemed to meet the requirements of the case from the stand- point of the " practical politicians" in the party. THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 331 Despite the fact that he had spent his life on the frontier, and was without party affiliations — he had never in his life attended an election to vote for any one — it was conceived that he would be a good Whig leader. Needless to say, Clay did not accede to this view. It was his objection to Jackson, of course, that he was a military chieftain, and was without knowledge or skill in civil matters. He wrote to Daniel Ull. man on May 12, 1847, that, if General Taylor were chosen, the nation, in his opinion, could u bid adieu to the election ever again of any man to the office of Chief Magistrate, who is not taken from the army. Both parties will stand committed to the choice of military men. Each in the future will seek to bring him forward who will be most likely to secure the public suffrage. Military chieftain will succeed military chieftain until at last one will reach the presidency who, more unscrupulous than his prede- cessors, will put an end to our liberties and establish a throne of military despotism." l The course of opinion, however remarkable it may seem, was steadily in the direction of the nom- ination of this ignorant man. Serious doubt as to the wisdom of again making Clay the candidate of the party was expressed by a friend as warm and close to him as John J. Crittenden. " I prefer Mr. Clay to all men for the presidency," he wrote, " but my conviction, my involuntary conviction, is that he cannot be elected." In the winter of 1847-1848 Mr. Clay visited Wash- ington to appear in a case before the Supreme 1 Private Correspondence, pp. 541-542. 332 HENRY CLAY Court. For a uuiuber of years be bad been presi- dent of tbe American Colonization Society, in whose purposes, as we bave seen, be bad a sincere belief. Tbe annual meetings were beld in Washington in January, and he had not been able to attend them since bis retirement from tbe Senate. Now another opportunity came, and the society, in order to accom- modate all those who would be present, secured the use of tbe hall of the House of Representatives. The sessions were usually held in the First Presby- terian Church. This year, however, the Capitol itself would not suffice to contain the crowds drawn there, not because of any interest in the subject of coloni- zation, but to see and hear Henry Clay. Men came from New York, Philadelphia, Balti- more, Richmond and other distant cities. "Whole acres" of them, according to Alexander H. Stephens, who had his own experiences in pressing his insignif- icant frame into the chamber by a side door, were turned away. Clay himself could scarcely get into the auditory. The call for an address was unex. pected, he said. " I have just terminated an ardu- ous journey of many hundreds of miles made in midwinter," he reminded his hearers, " and wher- ever I have been it has invariably been my lot to be surrounded by throngs." Therefore he had not had the opportunity to make " a solitary note," to guide him through such remarks as he should offer. He had been one of the founders of the society which now for twenty-five years had been sending free negroes to Liberia. " Far, very far, was it from our purpose to interfere with the slaves, or to shake or affect the title by which they are held in the least THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 333 degree whatever." He would not touch upon the subject of slavery, with which the society itself was not concerned, and though extremists among slaveholders on the one side, and Abolitionists on the other should denounce, through misunderstand- ing, the work of the society, it was doing that which must be done, — effecting the separation of races who could never become "one homogeneous people." The audience shouted and applauded, as crowds ever did in Clay's magnetic presence. Representa- tive Sherrerd, of North Carolina, remarked to Stephens that "Clay could get more men to run after him to hear him speak and fewer to vote for him than any man in America." l The Supreme Court room on February 12th, when Clay appeared there in Houston vs. the City Bank of New Orleans, was also densely packed, and thus it was wherever he went. While in Washington he dined at the President' s. ' ' Madam , " he sai d to Mrs. Polk on this occasion, "I have never heard any one make the least complaint of your administration, though I have occasionally heard some complaint of your husband's." The sudden fatality, which on February 22d befell John Quincy Adams, who at eighty-one was stricken by paralysis while he sat in his place in the House of Representatives, very pain- fully affected Clay. He visited the old statesman, who had been his companion in arms for so many years. Though Adams was quite unconscious Mr. x Schurz, Vol. II, pp. 269-270, following Johnston and Browne's Life of Stephens, which gives the date of Stephens's letter reporting this meeting as 1845, manifestly errs. The date must be 1848. Clay did not attend the meeting of the Coloni- zation Sooiety in 1845. See its reports for those years. 334 HENRY CLAY Clay took one of the limp hands in his own and gave way to his grief. Going on to Philadelphia, Clay was treated to a public reception in Independence Hall. He feel- ingly spoke of Mr. Adams, news of whose death overtook him at Baltimore. A pressing invitation to go to New York was accepted. A delegation of the citizens of Philadelphia, in the olden style, accompanied him as an escort as far as Amboy, where he was received by a committee representing New York, whose guest he was to be. The mayor formally welcomed him. Again he must respond. Again there was a procession through the streets crowded with shouting people, and there seemed nothing left but another canvass with Clay as the Whig standard-bearer. Upon his return to " Ashland " he continued to receive letters from his friends, advising him in re- gard to the course of the campaign for his nomina- tion by the convention, which was to meet in Phila- delphia on June 7th. Hopeful accounts of his pros- pects were transmitted to him, and he was not vain in believing that, if he could be chosen over a mere general in the Mexican War, it was his duty not to interfere, while his friends pressed his candidacy. The Democrats, in passing the free trade tariff of 1846, had alieuated those protectionist elements which they had deceived in 1844. Mr. Clay's pub- licly-expressed sympathy for the Irish sufferers by famine was thought to mean much in reference to the foreign vote which had been cast against him in 1844. Many excellent arguments were cited in favor of his nomination. He, however, was not swift to THE LAST GEEAT COMPROMISE 335 yield. He wrote to Thomas B. Stevenson on De- cember 2, 1847 : "Iain most unwilling to be thought to desire a nomination for the presidency. If better can be done without my name than with it, for God's sake, let me be passed by. But if I am to be used, I desire that I may be brought forward under the most auspicious circumstances." ' On February 19, 1848, he again wrote to Steven- son : "I maintain my passive attitude ; neither for the present consenting to, nor refusing the use of my name." His friends in Ohio were particularly insistent, and from the highest sources in the party came promises of the support of his name in the conven- tion. By reason of these representations he pub- lished a note in a newspaper expressive of his will- ingness again to be the Whig candidate. " Having taken this ground," he said in April, 1848, recall- ing the unfortunate campaign of four years before, " I mean henceforward to abstain from writing any political letters for publication, whatever the conse- quences may be. I have adopted this resolution not from any desire to conceal my opinions, but from a perfect conviction derived from sad experience that all such letters, from perversion or misrepresenta- tion, do more harm than good." No candidate could be elected without some of the slave states and he would receive, he thought, the votes of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland, and, probably, Louisiana and Florida. 1 Bolton, Vol. Ill, p. 461. 8 These facts are from the Stevenson letters in Col ton, Vol. Ill, appendix. 336 HENRY CLAY' The mortification of the next few weeks was great, and he shonld have been spared it. The opportunist office-seeking leaders, spoken of as the "congres- sional clique, " — those who had preferred Harrison to Clay in the Harrisburg convention in 1839, — aided by some new recruits, were now again in con- trol of the party machinery. As many as seven out of the twelve Kentucky delegates voted for Taylor. It was cause for great disappointment to Clay that his old friend Crittenden ' should now oppose him. Ohio, whose support had been confidently expected, deserted him in an incomprehensible way. On the first ballot the vote was, Taylor 111, Clay 97, Scott 43, Webster 22, Clayton 4 and McLean 2. Clay's vote fell and Taylor's gained until the fourth ballot, when the latter was nominated. The result was far from pleasing to many of the delegates, and the convention adjourned in confu- sion. It adopted no statement of party principles ; 1 Happily there was a reunion between Mr. Clay and Mr. Crittenden before Mr. Clay's death. The latter one day said to a friend whose hand he took in his own: "My friend, my dear friend— I must call you so for I have known you so long and so well — there is one thing that has troubled me, and that is that Mr. Crittenden should have suffered in the public esti- mation for his conduct in relation to the election of General Taylor and I regret that I was in an error about it even for a moment myself. I am now satisfied that his whole conduct in that matter was what Mr. Crittenden's friends would have expected of him, and I wish you to disabuse the public mind on this subject, and do not forget it." — Orlando Brown to Mr. Clay's son, Thomas H. Clay, July 19, 1852. When Crittenden was mentioned as a candidate for the Whig nomination for President in 1852, Clay was asked if he would favor it. He replied : "Mr. Crittenden and myself are now cordial friends, and if it be necessary to bring him forward as the candidate, it will meet my hearty approbation." — J. R. Underwood to Thomas H. Clay, August 3, 1852. THE LAST GKEAT COMPROMISE 337 its candidate for the presidency avowed none. Clay felt this indignity more than any which he had be- fore suffered. To Stevenson he wrote on June 14, 1848: "The less said the better about the result of the late Whig convention at Philadelphia. I believe that I can bear it with much less regret than my warm-hearted friends. Whatever I do feel is prin- cipally on their account, and on account of the prin- ciples which were at issue, and which have been so little regarded. I have not lost one hour's sleep, nor one meal of victuals. Accustomed as I have been to disappointments and to afflictions, they disturb now, less than ever, my composure. I hope that I derive some support from a resignation to the will of the great Disposer of all events. ' ' He wished to know why Ohio had failed. Except at the urgent solicitation of that state, he would not have allowed his name to come before the conven- tion on any account. But he had no reproaches. What had been done was done. His friends were less philosophic. It was, said one of them, "the greatest act of national injustice" which it was in the power of the delegates to perform. The pro- ceeding was described as "treachery," which met with "the execrations of the mass of the party." The convention, said another, had committed the "double crime of suicide and parricide." It had killed itself and its parent at one blow. Mr. Clay had cordially given his support to Harri- son in 1840, but he could and would not now forward Taylor's campaign. He would "remain quiet," he wrote to a friend, submitting to what had been 338 HENEY CLAY done in so far as it related to himself. He could not favor Taylor as a Whig, when the candidate declared that he was a " no party" man, with- out definite principles. Indeed, before the meet- ing of the convention he had written Clay a letter, which the latter had magnanimously neglected to make public until long afterward, saying that he meant to run for President in any event, whether he were nominated as a Whig or not, a fact which Mr. Clay's friends always believed would have been fatal to the general's prospects if it had been disclosed at the right time. u In such a contest," said Clay, "I can feel no enthusiasm, and I am not hypocrite enough to affect what I do not feel. . . . My race is run. Dur- ing the short time which remains to me in this world I desire to preserve untarnished that character which so many have done me the honor to respect and esteem. . . . Seeking to influence nobody, I hope to be permitted to pursue for myself the dic- tates of my own conscience." ! Naturally, in the heat of the canvass he was vio- lently criticized by Taylor's partisans for not giving his aid to the candidate. " It [the criticism] does not disturb my equanimity," he wrote to Stevenson on August 5th, " nor will it drive me from the even tenor of my way. All my solicitude now in regard to myself is to preserve untarnished my humble fame, and I mean to be the exclusive judge of the best means to accomplish that object, 1 ' He was never out of the public mind. A vacancy occurring in the United States Senate, the governor 1 Private Correspondence, pp. 567-568. THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 339 asked him to accept the appointment, but he de- clined. Taylor having allied himself with the slave- holders, in the view of inany Northern Whigs, efforts were made, late in the campaign, to obtain Clay's consent to lead a third party, but he promptly re- fused. He was still unwilling to say that he would vote for Taylor, although every effort was made to obtain such a statement from him. No one should be misled by him. He was induced to say, how- ever, that he could not favor General Cass. Slavery and anti -slavery were to enter into the contest as never before, with strange results. Taylor secured the votes of fifteen states, including eight slave states, and won ; but the victory was the knell of the Whig party. Like its other President, Har- rison, Taylor died after a short incumbency of his office, which passed to Millard Fillmore, the Vice- President, a respected leader of the party in New York state, of whom Mr. Clay thought and spoke with favor. The winter of 1848-1849 was again spent in New Orleans. Mr. Clay had said before going South, in answer to many inquiries, that if it were the desire of the legislature to send him again to the Senate, he would accept the office. He scented the battle from afar, and was a little restive to be where he could take a part in the great sectional conflict. The election, which was for a full term of six years, was a satisfaction to him, and afforded him the op- portunity to figure in another important national scene. While he was absent in the South, Kentucky had in hand a bitter anti -slavery discussion, induced by 340 HENEY CLAY the election of a convention to revise the state con- stitution. On February 17, 1849, he sent from New Orleans to Eichard Pindell in Lexington a long letter, wherein he expressed his views on the subject of emancipation. He had always insisted that it was a matter for the states, and now that his own Kentucky was face to face with the issue, his heart was found in the right place. The question was whether slavery should be permitted to continue to exist indefinitely, or whether some provision should not be made for its ''gradual and ultimate extinc- tion." Clay's plan called for arrangements to free at a specified age, say twenty- five, all slaves born after 1855 or 1860. Others would remain slaves for life. When liberated they should be removed to some colony like Liberia, the cost of the transfer to be defrayed out of a fund raised by the hire of the freedmen at profitable labor. It was a slow and cautious process. It promised nothing for a long term of years, and then a difficult and, as we think now, an impracticable scheme of colonization. A f ter uofolding his plan, Mr. Clay said : ''Kentucky enjoys high respect and honorable consideration throughout the Union and throughout the civilized world ; but in my humble opinion no title which she has to the esteem and admiration of mankind, no deeds of her former glory would equal in greatness and grandeur that of being the pioneer state in removing from her soil every trace of human slavery, and in establishing the descendants of Africa within her jurisdiction in the native land of their forefathers." The not very favorable reception of Clay's sug- THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 341 gestions must have been foreseen. On March 3d he wrote to his sou James : " As I regret to hear that it is not popular, I suppose that my letter will bring on me some odium. I nevertheless wish it published. I owe that to the cause, and to myself and to posterity." l Of course, naught came of the project. Proposals looking toward emancipation, of whatever kind, seemed only to increase the determination of the slaveholders to prove to the world that their insti- tution was irreproachable, if not really sacred. The summer for Mr. Clay was spent quietly at ' ' Ashland, ' ' he not having taken the trip East for the u call session." " I shall go to Washington if I am spared," he wrote, " with a firm determination to oppose or support measures according to my de- liberate sense of their effects upon the interests of our country." 2 He left home on November 1st, and on his way passed two or three weeks in Philadel- phia, New York and Baltimore, where, as he wrote his son, his presence " excited the usual enthusi- asm " amoDg his friends. He took a parlor and a bedroom at the National Hotel in Washington, and was attended by a valet, a free colored man. He was early invited to dine with the President, but their relations, as in Louisiana, where they had met after the election, were not more than formally civil. The bitterness of feeling over the slavery ques- tion, which had developed in Mr. Clay's absence, was much greater than he could believe. Despite his protests against the recognition of the issue, it had pressed its way into everything, and a time was 1 Private Correspondence, p. 585, * Jbid., p. 588, 342 HENRY CLAY at hand when, if some compromise could not be ef- fected, the Union might be considered at an end. The Southern leaders were not at all pleased to note Clay's return to Washington, thinking that his in- fluence upon Taylor and the Whig administration would unfavorably affect them. He no sooner reached there than he took measures to check dis- union sentiment. He wrote to General Leslie Combs, asking him to organize public meetings in Kentucky to stem the progress of the scheme for the disruption of the government. Mississippi, in May, 1849, had taken the lead in an address to the people of the South, asking them to send delegates to a convention to be held in Nashville on the first Mon- day in June, 1850. The support of Kentucky was confidently expected by the leaders, and Clay was determined that it should not be given. In his let- ter to Combs he said : ' ' The feeling for disunion among some intemper- ate Southern politicians is stronger than I hoped, or supposed it could be. The masses generally, even at the South, are, I believe, yet sound ; but they may become influenced and perverted. The best counteraction of that feeling is to be derived from popular expressions of public meetings of the people." ! These were held in Kentucky and in other states at Clay's patriotic instigation. It was his plan to speak little in Congress, and when he did it would be with a view to endeavoring to " throw oil upon the troubled waters." In the hope that he would have small part iu the proceedings he was mistaken, 1 Private Correspondence, p. 593. THE LAST GREAT COMPROxMISE 343 for he at once took his old post as the leader of the Senate — indeed, he could be naught but a leader anywhere. The burning question was the treatment of slavery in the empire which had been acquired as a result of the Mexican War. Clay knew, and said in his correspondence, that this war had been waged on Southern advice, and that the great accessions to the national domain were made at the dictation of the South. Indeed, all the recent extensions of the national area were effected to satisfy the South, while the domination of its leaders in the counsels of the Union had materially interfered with the de- velopment of the manufacturing interests of the Northern people. The Wilinot Proviso, that slavery should be forever prohibited in all the territory ac- quired from Mexico, had Clay's sincere approval. If the South did not control her passions and ambi- tions, the result would be "the formation of a sec- tional and Northern party, which will sooner or later take permanent exclusive possession of the government." In California and New Mexico the people were busily at work planning constitutions which would lead to their becoming states of the Union. Taylor, though much was expected of him as a slaveholder, insisted that both California and New Mexico had the right to come into the Union as free states, if this were their wish. The Southern hotspurs— Cal- houn's brood— had never before been so numerous and active. Slavery influenced their view of every subject. A simple proposal to give the privileges of the floor of the Senate to Father Mathew, the 344 HENRY CLAY famous temperance advocate, met with Southern opposition because he had once signed an anti- slavery petition in Ireland. Such a course deserved a stronger reproof than that which came from Clay, but he chose his words in his great desire to pacify the Southern leaders. " I put it in all seriousness, in a spirit of the most perfect kindness to the hon- orable senator from Alabama," he said, u whether this pushing the subject of slavery, in its collateral and remote branches upon all possible occasions that may arise, during our deliberations in this body, is not impolitic, unwise, and injurious to the stability of the very institution which I have no doubt the honorable gentleman would uphold." Day by day, in his remarks upon great and small subjects, he brought back into the Senate that spirit of courtesy toward an antagonist, and general suavity of demeanor in debate, which were in danger of dis- appearing in our national parliamentary bodies, and soon after he left the chamber, did entirely dis- appear. While he was putting into order his plans for some healing measure— it was only the pur- pose of applying balm to the distracted country which had caused him to consent, at his age, to leave his home and resume his place in the Senate, — many questions arose to claim his attention. An advertisement, which he had chanced to see in a newspaper, of the sale of the original manuscript copy of Washington's " Farewell Address," gave him an opportunity to recall, to the minds of the younger men assembled around him, some of its patriotic lessons. It was too good an invitation to neglect, for he could dwell upon the advice " to be- THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 345 ware of sectional division, to beware of demagogues, to beware of the consequences of the spirit of dis- union." It was an extraordinary company which he fouud in the Senate, — upon his return to the chamber — composed as it was of men who had been much to the country, or were later destined to figure prominently in its history. Some seemed to have come for the nation's funeral j some to attend its re- birth. The great triumvirs met here for the last time. Calhoun, after leaving Tyler's cabinet, had been returned to the Senate in 1845, and would die in harness in a few months. Webster had returned in the same year and would remain until, after Taylor's death, Fillmore recalled him to the State Department. Benton was in his place, and in look- ing around him, Clay could see the faces of Willie P. Manguin, Sam Houston, from the new state of Texas ; John M. Berrien, the veteran of Georgia ; William R. King, of Alabama j Jefferson Davis, Lewis Cass, Henry S. Foote, Hunter and Mason of Virginia ; Butler, who had three years before be- come Calhoun's colleague from South Carolina ; Soule of Louisiana, Stephen A. Douglas and John Bell ; Thomas Cor win from Ohio, and inflexible Northern leaders like John P. Hale, William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase. No similar group of men were ever gathered together in any legislative hall upon this continent, before or since. The question of compromise engaged Clay's at- tention by day and by night. He had mauy confer- ences with the leaders, and was by no means certain of success. On January 24, 1850, he wrote to James 346 HENRY CLAY Harlan : ' ' Slavery here is the all-engrossing theme, and iny hopes and my fears alternately prevail as to any satisfactory settlement of the vexed question. 1 have been anxiously considering whether any com- prehensive plan can be devised and proposed to ad- just satisfactorily the distracting question. I should not, however, otfer any scheme unless it meets my entire concurrence." l Five days later, on January 29th, Clay offered his plan to the Senate, in the form of eight resolutions : "It being desirable, for the peace, concord and harmony of the Union of these states, to settle and adjust amicably all existing questions of controversy between them, arising out of the institution of sla- very, upon a fair, equitable and just basis, there- fore, " 1st. Resolved, that California, with suitable boundaries, ought, upon her application, to be ad- mitted as one of the states of this Union without the imposition by Congress of any restriction in respect to the exclusion or the introduction of slavery within those boundaries. " 2d. Resolved, that, as slavery does not exist by law and is not likely to be introduced into any of the territory acquired by the United States from the republic of Mexico, it is inexpedient for Con- gress to provide by law, either for its introduction into or exclusion from any part of the said territory ; and that appropriate territorial governments ought to be established by Congress in all of the said terri- tory, not assigned as the boundaries of the proposed state of California, without the adoption of any re- striction or condition on the subject of slavery. " 3d. Resolved, that the western boundary of 1 Private Correspondence, pp. 599-600. THE LAST GEE AT COMPEOMISE 347 the state of Texas ought to be fixed on the Eio del Norte, commencing one marine league from its mouth, and running up that river to the southern line of New Mexico ; thence with that line east- wardly, and so continuing in the same direction to the line established between the United States and Spain, excluding any portion of New Mexico, whether lying on the east or west of that river. " 4th. Eesolved, that it be proposed to the state of Texas that the United States will provide for the payment of all that portion of the legitimate aud bona fide public debt of that state contracted prior to its annexation to the United States. [Here follow conditions and specifications.] " 5th. Eesolved, that it is inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, while that in- stitution continues to exist in the state of Maryland without the consent of that state, without the con- sent of the people of the District, and without just compensation to the owners of slaves within the District. " 6th. But resolved, that it is expedient to pro- hibit within the District the slave-trade, in slaves brought into it from states or places beyond the limits of the District, either to be sold therein as merchandise, or to be transported to other markets without the District of Columbia. " 7th. Eesolved, that more effectual provision ought to be made by law, according to the require- ment of the Constitution, for the restitution and de- livery of persons, bound to service or labor in any state, who may escape into any other state or terri- tory in the Union. " 8th. Eesolved, that Congress has no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves between the slaveholding states ; but that the admission or ex- clusion of slaves, brought from one into another of 348 HENRY CLAY them, depends exclusively upon their own particular laws. ' ' In introducing these resolutions, Mr. Clay asserted that all taken together in combination they proposed " an amicable arrangement of all questions in con- troversy between the free and the slave states, grow- ing out of the great question of slavery." It was, he said, "a great national scheme of compromise and harmony." His remarks were in his most pa- cificatory spirit. They were addressed to North and South. He appealed especially to the men of the Northern states because they were greater ' ' in point of numbers," and he continued happily, "greatness and magnanimity should ever be allied." On their side they had "an abstraction, a sentiment," noble it might be, if it were rightly directed. On the other side there was property to be sacrificed ; there were homes and families in danger from servile in- surrections and race wars. " In the one scale then," he concluded, "we behold sentiment, sentiment, sentiment alone ; in the other, property, the social fabric, life, and all that makes life desirable and happy." l It was Clay's wish, he said, that the senators should consider his proposals calmly, in the spirit in which he had thought them out and offered them ; but expressions of angry opinion immediately en- sued. Foote, Mason, Jefferson Davis and others arose in a far from pleasant mood. To Davis, who insisted upon an extension of the line of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean, Clay said in reply : 1 Last Seven Years, pp. 122-123. THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 349 " I am reminded of my coming from a slave state. I tell the senator from Mississippi [Davis], and I tell the senator from Virginia [Mason], that I know my duty, and that I mean to express the opinions I entertain, fearless of all mankind. . . . And now, sir, coming from a slave state, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the sub- ject 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 north or south of the Missouri Compromise line. Coming as I do from a slave state, it is my solemn, deliberate and well-matured determination that no power, no earthly power shall compel me to vote for the posi- tive introduction of slavery either south or north of that line. Sir, while you reproach and justly, too, our British ancestors for the introduction of this in- stitution upon the continent of America, I am for one unwilling that the posterity of the present in- habitants of California or New Mexico shall re- proach us for doing just what we reproach Great Britain for doing to us. If the citizens of those ter- ritories choose to establish slavery, and if they come here with constitutions establishing slavery, I am for admitting them with such provisions in their constitutions ; but then it will be their own work and not ours ; and their posterity will have to re- proach them and not us for forming constitutions al- lowing the institution of slavery to exist among them. These are my views, sir, and I choose to ex- press them ; and I care not how extensively or universally they are known." l 1 Globe, Vol. 21, Part I, p. 249. 350 HENRY CLAY Clay's proposals were now fairly before the Senate and the country. Crowds assembled in the Capitol to hear the debates. Clay himself appeared in a memorable speech, covering two days, February 5th and 6th. His health was not good. He was separated from the kind attentions of Mrs. Clay, and subjected to the inconveniences and discomforts of life in a lodging-house. He had carefully pre- pared himself for the occasion and was accompanied to the Capitol by Rev. Dr. Van Arsdale, who after- ward told of the great statesman's debility. As they reached the Capitol steps Clay said : " Will you lend me your arm, my friend ? for I find myself quite weak and exhausted this morn- ing." Frequently they were obliged to stop that he might recover his breath. He had a disagreeable cough. "Mr. Clay, had you not better defer your speech?" Dr. Van Arsdale remarked. "You are certainly too ill to exert yourself to-day." "My dear friend," answered Clay, "I consider our country in danger, and if I can be the means in any measure of averting that danger, my health or my life is of little consequence." The Senate chamber was thronged with spectators and auditors from distant cities, women as well as men. Clay rose amid an outburst of applause, and this was the sign for a great shout from the crowd without, hopeless of getting in ; it was, therefore, a considerable time before the orator could go on with any prospect of being heard. It was an extraordinary scene, even when account is taken of THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 351 Clay's many extraordinary receptions by popular audiences. It was in truth ' ' a vast assemblage of beauty, grace, elegance and intelligence," as the speaker himself said in beginning his speech on the second day. Again to hear this polished orator of an age which was rapidly going by, was rightly esteemed a rare opportunity. He began in a low tone, faltering by reason of his ill-health and his natural emotions. "I have witnessed many periods of great anxiety, of peril and of danger, even, to the country," said he, " but I have never before arisen to address any assembly so op- pressed, so appalled, so anxious. ' ' His moods and tones were well measured to the subject and the time. There were none of those biting tongues of fire in his speech with which he had scourged Jack, son, or later Calhoun and the faithless Tyler. It was the mellow voice of age, charitable, peace-lov- ing, conciliatory, keyed to all the fearful responsi- bilities of a serious hour. He covered each one of his resolutions in his argument, and made friends for them. Members from time to time interposed motions to adjourn, but he insisted that he was able to proceed, and on the second day did bring his argument to the end, in an eloquent plea for sectional concord. He pictured the horrors of civil war which would inevitably follow any attempt at a dissolution of the Union. Such a dissolution and war are, he said with what truth later events were needed to disclose, "iden- tical and inseparable." They are "convertible terms." "Such a war too as that would be, follow- ing the dissolution of the Union ! " he exclaimed 352 HENKY CLAY with awful prophecy. "Sir, we may search the pages of history and none so furious, so bloody, so implacable, so exterminating from the wars of Greece down, including those of the Commonwealth of England and the Kevolution of France — none, none of them raged with such violence or was ever conducted with such bloodshed and enormities, as will that war which shall follow that dis- astrous event — if that event ever happens of disso- lution." He announced his principles on this subject in unmistakable terms : " I am directly opposed to any purpose of seces- sion, of separation. I am for staying within the Union and defying any portion of this Union to ex- pel or drive me out of the Union. I am for staying within the Union and fighting for my rights — if necessary with the sword — within the bounds and under the safeguard of the Union. I am for vindi- cating these rights ; but not by being driven out of the Union rashly, and unceremoniously by any por- tion of this confederacy. Here I am within it, and here I mean to stand and die ; as far as my in- dividual purposes or wishes can go — within it to protect myself and to defy all power upon earth to expel me or drive me from the situation in which I am placed." He closed with this eloquent appeal : " I conjure gentlemen, — whether from the South or the North — by all they hold dear in this world, — by all their love of liberty, — by all their venera- tion for their ancestors, — by all their regard for posterity — by all their gratitude to Him who has THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 353 bestowed upon them such unnumbered blessings — by all the duties which they owe to mankind and all the duties they owe themselves — by all these considerations, I implore them to pause — solemnly to pause — at the edge of the precipice before the fearful and disastrous leap is taken in the yawning abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain and irretrievable destruction. And finally, Mr. President, I implore as the best blessing that Heaven can bestow upon me upon earth, that, if the direful and sad event of the dissolution of the Union shall happen, I may not survive to behold the sad and heartrending spectacle." When he had ended this supreme effort, men crowded about him to take his hand, and women came up to kiss him, so deeply moved were they by the appeal. It seemed a sublime moment in the history of the country and Clay was the central figure upon the stage. Never had he appeared so grand. He had been the darling of his friends. He was now almost their god. On February 14th, Senator Foote, Davis's col" league from Mississippi, made a motion that Clay's resolutions and all pending questions bound up with slavery should be referred to a select committee of thirteen. Other resolutions appeared, notably a se- ries brought forward by Bell of Tennessee. There ensued long and acrimonious debates upon all the various subjects in dispute between the two sections. In response to Senator Foote, Clay made these notable remarks on February 14th : "It is totally unnecessary for the gentleman to remind me of my coming from a slaveholding state. 354 HENRY CLAY I know whence I come, and I know my duty, and I am ready to submit to any responsibility which be- longs to me as a senator from a slaveholding state. Sir, I have heard something said on this and a former occasion about allegiance to the South. I know no South, no North, no East, no West to which I owe any allegiauce. I owe allegiance to two sovereignties, and only two : one is the sov- ereignty of this Union, and the other is the sov- ereignty of the state of Kentucky. My allegiance is to this Union and to my state ; but if gentlemen sup- pose they can exact from me an acknowledgment of allegiance to any ideal or future contemplated con- federacy of the South, I here declare that I owe no allegiance to it ; nor will I, for one, come under any such allegiance if I can avoid it." In a running debate in the Senate, on February 20th, charged with inconsistency of conduct on the slavery question, Mr. Clay said : "From the earliest moment when I could con- sider the institution of slavery, I have held and I have said from that day down to the present, again and again, and I shall go to the grave with the opinion, that it is an evil, a social and political evil, and that it is a wrong, as it respects those who are subject to the institution of slavery. ... I desire the sympathy of no man, the forbearance of no man ; I desire to escape from no responsibility of my public conduct on account of my age, or for any other cause. . . . Ready to express my opinions upon all and every subject, I am de- termined to do so, and no imputation, no threat, no menace, no application of awe or terror to me will THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 355 be availing in restraining me from expressing them. .None, none whatever." Calhoun, dying as he was, too far into the next world to speak to this, was led into the Senate while his plan of compromise and peace was added to the general sum. Webster joined in the debate on March the 7th, a date which has ever since attached to his speech, so remarkable as a bid for the favor of the South. Treason it seemed to be to his New England friends. Appearances favored the success of Clay's plan, in spite of the acerbity of the public mind. For the moment the tide of Abolition in the North a little receded, fearful of the pictured consequences. The South also curbed its hot pas- sions. On February 2d Clay wrote to Daniel Ullinan : " I am very glad to find that my movement to com- promise the slavery question is approved. The timid from the North hesitate, and the violent from the South may oppose it, but I entertain hopes of success." He again urged the holding of public meetings in the North, recommending that his name should not be mentioned in connection with them. They should seem to be local and spontaneous as- semblages of the people. On February 15th he again wrote to Mr. Ullman concerning his scheme of adjustment : " Although I cannot positively say so, I entertain strong hopes that it will furnish the basis of concord and a satisfactory accommoda- tion." Some disturbance of the pleasant feeling, to which Clay desired to effect a return, was created by Pres- ident Tajdor. He, like Jackson, had a military 356 HENRY CLAY view of his office and a slaveholder though he was, had been taught to regard all mumbling about dis- union as treason. If this was the purpose of these Southerners, he said, they should be dealt with by law as they deserved, and executed. The younger anti-slavery men in the Senate, like Seward and Chase, the former with his "higher law" speech, also added nothing which was calcu- lated to increase the calm of the South. To James Harlan, Mr. Clay wrote, on March 16th : " The all- engrossing subject of slavery continues to agitate us and to paralyze almost all legislation. My hopes are strong that the question will ultimately be amicably adjusted, although when and how cannot be clearly seen." Thus hope continued to be felt, but no marked progress was made until Foote's motion for the ap- pointment of a committee of thirteen was renewed^ and this committee with six senators from the North and six from the South, with Clay as the thirteenth at its head, on April 19th, was commissioned to be- gin its task of finding some plan of settlement. To these thirteen men came the entire confused mass of proposals and suggestions, by which the Senate and the country at large had been regaled, during the past months. On May 8th Clay and his colleagues reported three bills. The first, soon called the " Omnibus Bill," provided for the admission of California ; the organization of territorial govern- ments for New Mexico and Utah without slavery restrictions ; and the adjustment of the boundary between New Mexico and Texas. The second was a fugitive slave law j while the third would prohibit THE LAST GEEAT COMPBOMISE 357 the slave trade in the District of Columbia. To- gether they covered all the essential points in Mr. Clay's original resolutions. Scarcely any one seemed to be pleased with the report and it was a basis of further prolific argu- ment. On May 13th Mr. Clay himself took up the report in a long and carefully prepared speech, comparable in many ways with that which he had delivered in February. He was now in somewhat better health and called upon all his remarkable oratorical resources. He believed that the sigus improved : " I am happy to be able to recognize what all have seen, that since the commencement of the session a most gratifying change has taken place. The North, the glorious North, has come to the rescue of this Union of ours. She has displayed a disposition to abate in her demands. The South, the glorious South — no less glorious than her neighbor section of the Union, has also come to the rescue. The minds of men have moderated ; passion has given place to reason everywhere." ( 'I do not despair ; I will not despair that the measure will be carried," he said as he concluded his speech, ' ' and I would almost stake my exist- ence, if I dared, that if these measures which have been reported by the Committee of Thirteen were submitted to the people of the United States to- morrow, and their vote were taken upon them, there would be nine-tenths of them in favor of the pacifi- cation which is embodied in that report. ' ; Whether or not this would have been so Clay knew not better than many others. There was un- 358 HENRY CLAY questionably a very deep anxiety for some scheme of concord, if it should be possible to find one. It was necessary in his work of pacification for Clay to oppose President Taylor's policy, which called for the immediate admission of California as a free state, and the opening of a way that seemed to pledge Utah and New Mexico to the anti -slavery cause also. In speaking against Taylor's desire to bring in California at once by a separate bill, Clay, on May 21st, made his famous allusions to the five "bleeding wounds," which he indicated on his out- stretched hand. "What is the plan of the Presi- dent?" he exclaimed. "Is it to heal all these wounds 1 No such thing. It is only to heal one of the five and to leave the other four to bleed more profusely than ever by the sole admission of Cali- fornia, even if it should produce death itself. I have said that five wounds are open and bleeding. What are they ? First, there is California ; there are the territories, second ; there is the question of the boundary of Texas, the third ; there is the fugi- tive slave bill, the fourth ; and there is the question of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, fifth." It was the occasion for Benton to say that Clay could have found more bleeding wounds if he had had more fingers on his hand. These two men who had once been friends, and then during the Jack- son regime were so bitterly opposed to each other, were now united in the work of endeavoring to main- tain the Union which they both loved. Neverthe- less, they cooperated under a kind of armed neu- trality. On June 13th, for instance, Benton accused THE LAST GEEAT COMPROMISE 359 Clay of '' lecturing " the senators, who were all, he said, above thirty years of age, the limit prescribed by the Constitution. Clay, when his turn came, re- torted cleverly amid much laughter : "Now with respect to lecturing the Senate, it is an office which I have never sought to fill. There are many rea- sons why I do not like to do it. In giving a lecture, the person lecturing ought to have some ability to impart instruction, and the person to whom it is addressed should have the capacity of receiving it. In this case, as between the senator and myself, both of these conditions are wanting. Therefore I do not aspire to the office of a lecturer. ' ' Clay was in the midst of every discussion of the slavery question. He complained often of the de- bilities of age, but when spoken of they seemed to make his discourses the more impressive. It is computed that in this debate he was on his feet no less than seventy times. His activity was astound- ing. He was in complete control of the situation at a period when the Senate had never held so many adroit, active, vigorous leaders. It was his policy to husband his resources by remaining at home when the one great question was not under discussion, but it seemed to be almost constantly in the foreground . Yet he was very ill and the strain of the contest wore upon him as the session went on, day by day, through the hot summer. Filibustering policies, which he deprecated, were adopted and the sight of the old statesman moving that the Senate should meet at an earlier hour in the morning and give more time to the great work in hand, was one to be remembered. He was feeding his life out, inch 360 HENRY CLAY by inch, in his patriotic endeavor to restore the harmony of the republic. The Nashville Convention of June met and dis- solved without coming to those dread conclusions which some in the South had hoped for and many, both North and South, had feared. On the 9th of July President Taylor died suddenly, after a short illness, and the Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, succeeded to his place. Both of these events strength- ened Clay's position in reference to the Compro- mise. The cabinet was reorganized, with Webster in the State Department ; the administration was now friendly and willing to follow a middle course. On July 22d, nearly six months after he had in- troduced his resolutions, the time came for his clos- ing speech upon the report of the committee of thirteen. This was a general review of the debate. It was another great oration, taxing Clay's mental powers and his physical strength, but it was finished with entire credit to him, and with advantage to the cause, which he pursued with so much devotion. Including the interruptions of those who rose to make or answer objections, it consumed a day. Though it breathed the spirit of conciliation, it was full of vigorous denunciation of the ultraists, for it was these who, as Clay well understood, were the obstacles to the fruition of his plans. He spoke of the Abolitionists, on the one hand, as a "fanatic, desperate band" — "men who if their power was equal to their malignity would seize the sun of this great system of ours, drag it from the position in which it keeps in order the whole planetary bodies of the universe, and replunge the world in chaos THE LAST GEE AT COMPROMISE 361 and confusion to carry out their single idea." On the other hand, he roundly castigated Jefferson Davis for having said that New Mexico would be good ground for "the breeding of slaves." Such talk would do "for the bar-rooms of cross-road tav- erns. ' ' He had hoped never to hear it on the floor of the Senate of the United States. The fire-eater Eliett of South Carolina, upon his return from the Nashville Convention, where things went not as he desired, had raised the ' i standard of rebellion 7 J in Charleston. Clay did not neglect him. Barnwell, who had taken Calhoun's place in the Senate, un- dertook to defend his friend. Nothing daunted Clay replied : u I know him personally and have some respect for him. But if he pronounced the sentiment at- tributed to him of raising the standard of disunion and of resistance to the common government, what- ever he has been, if he follows up that declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor and I hope he will meet the fate of a traitor." At this speech there was so much applause in the galleries that the chair threatened to clear them, reminding the audience that the Senate chamber was not a theatre. Clay continued, addressing him- self to South Carolina : "I do not regard as my duty what the honorable senator seems to regard as his. If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance unjustly, I never will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union — a subordinate one to my own state. . . . Spirited as she [South Carolina] is, spirited as she may suppose herself to be, competent as she may 362 HENEY CLAY think herself to wield her separate power against the power of this Union, I will tell her and I will tell the senator himself that there are as brave, as dauntless, as gallant men and as devoted j>atriots in every other state of tye Union as are to be found in South Carolina herself j and, if in any unjust cause South Carolina or any other state should hoist the flag of disunion and rebellion, thousands, tens of thousands of Kentuckians would flock to the stand- ard of their country to dissipate and repress their rebellion. These are my sentiments — make the most of them." In summing up his views and in formulating the appeal to his fellow senators Clay said in a burst of earnest eloquence : * ' I believe from the bottom of my soul that the measure is the reunion of this Union. I believe that it is the dove of peace which, taking its aerial flight from the dome of the Capitol, carries the glad tidings of assured peace and restored harmony to all the remotest extremities of this distracted land. I believe that it will be attended with all these benefi- cent effects. And now let us discard all resent- ment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal desires, all love of place, all hungering after the gilded crumbs which fall from the table of power. Let us forget popular fears from whatever quarter they spring. Let us go to the limpid fountain of unadulterated patriotism, and, performing a solemn lustration, return divested of all selfish, sinister and sordid impurities, and think alone of our God, our country, our consciences and our glorious Union ; that Union without which we shall be torn into THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 363 hostile fragments and sooner or later become the victims of military despotism or foreign domina- tion. . . . Sir, we have heard hard words, bitter words, bitter thoughts, unpleasant feelings toward each other in the progress of this great measure. Let us forget them. Let us sacrifice these feelings. Let us go to the altar of our country and swear, as the oath was taken of old, that we will stand by her ; we will support her ; that we will uphold her Constitution ; that we will preserve her Union, and that we will pass this great, comprehensive and healing system of measures, which will hush all the jarring elements and bring peace and tranquillity to our homes.'' It was foreseen that the " Omnibus Bill" would be defeated, and that the subjects crowded into it would be taken out to be considered separately. When the measure came to a vote on July 31st, it had been so much disfigured by amendments that there was nothing left of it but a scheme of terri- torial government for Utah. It seemed for a mo- ment like defeat, and Clay on the following day, August 1st, spoke with much spirit, reaffirming in still stronger terms his devotion to the Union, come what might. He said with great effect : " I stand here in my place, meaning to be unawed by any threats, whether they come from individuals or from other states. I should deplore, as much as any man living or dead, that arms should be raised against the authority of the Union, either by indi- viduals or by states. But after all that has oc- curred, if any one state, or a portion of the people of any state, choose to place themselves in military 364 HENBY CLAY array against the government of the Union, I am for trying the strength of the government, I am for ascertaining whether we have got a government or not— practical, efficient, capable of maintaining its authority, and of upholding the powers and inter- ests which belong to a government. Kor, sir, am I to be alarmed or dissuaded from any such course by intimations of the spilling of blood. If blood is to be spilt, by whose fault is it to be spilt 1 Upon the supposition, I maintain it will be the fault of those who choose to raise the standard of disunion and endeavor to prostrate this government ; and, sir, when that is done, so long as it pleases God to give me a voice to express my sentiments, or an arm weak and enfeebled as it may be by age, that voice and that arm will be on the side of my coun- try, for the support of the general authority and for the maintenance of the powers of this Union.' J This speech was interrupted and followed by tre- mendous applause. At one point the chair asked Mr. Clay to take his seat for a moment. He again warned the crowds in the galleries that it was not a theatre to which they had come. Clay himself urged them to desist. Walker of Wisconsin said it was a pleasure to him to hear these expressions of ^probation. He in turn was asked to take his seat, and Clay resumed his patriotic discourse. He spoke of disunionist demonstrations at earlier periods in the history of the country. He wished to know " whether we are bound together by a rope of sand or an effective capable government, compe- tent to enforce the powers therein vested by the Constitution of the United States." What was this THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 365 11 doctrine of nullification " ? " That when a single state shall undertake to say that a law passed by the twenty-nine states is unconstitutional and void she may raise the standard of resistance and defy the twenty-nine. Sir, I denied the doctrine twenty years ago — I deny it now — I will die denying it. There is no such principle. If a state chooses to assume the attitude of defiance to the sovereign authority, and set up a separate nation against the nation of twenty-nine states, it takes the consequences upon itself." u Gentlemen lay to their souls the flattering unction," he said, that the army being led by Southern officers would not raise an arm in such a contest as they had in mind. They were "utterly mistaken." He was told the story of Bernadotte who, when he came to the confines of France, re- fused to invade his native country. As for him he had more admiration for the " Roman father, who for the sake of Rome condemned and caused to be executed his own son : that is my notion of liberty." A senator had again spoken of Virginia as Henry Clay's country. "This Union is my country," he retorted, "the thirty states are my country 5 Kentucky is my coun- try, and Virginia no more than any other of the states of this Union. She has created on my part obligations, and feelings, and duties toward her in my private character which, nothing upon earth would induce me to forfeit or violate. But even if it were my own state — if my own state lawlessly, contrary to her duty, should raise the standard of disunion against the residue of the Union, I would 366 HENRY CLAY go against her. I would go against Kentucky her- self in that contingency, much as I love her." These invigorating views, breathing the very spirit of Federalism, presented with all the author- ity of a man whose traditions were rooted in the age of Jefferson, Madison and the "fathers" of Virginia, and the period of whose public career ran back into that era — presented, too, with a skill and an eloquence which no speaker could surpass, and with an earnestness which seemed to be, as it was, draining his last energies and advancing his life nearer its end, produced a powerful effect upon the Senate and that immense audience outside, North and South, and East and West, to whom his words were immediately conveyed. The " Omnibus Bill " was lost and it seemed like a defeat, but it was really a great victory. Clay went off on August 2d to enjoy the cool airs and the sea- bathing at Newport. In his absence the sepa- rate subjects covered by his resolutions, which had so long been before the Senate, were taken up one by one, and under urgent pressure the bills fixing the Texas boundary, admitting California into the Union as a free state, establishing a territorial gov- ernment in New Mexico without any condition as to slavery, and making more stringent provisions in regard to the pursuit and capture of fugitive slaves were enacted into laws. Clay returned to Washington late in August to find that his entire programme had been adopted, except the bill pro- hibiting the slave trade in the District of Columbia. That too must be passed. The North demanded it. It was a part of an integral whole, and Clay led in THE LAST GREAT COMPROMISE 367 the prolonged contest for its enactment in a number of speeches in the first weeks of September. For instance, he must combat the statement of Senator Hunter of Virginia, as to the blessings of the Afri- can slave trade, which Mr. Clay said had met " with the almost unanimous detestation of mankind. ' ' He did not bandy words in explaining to the Southern leaders the difference between a law to abolish the slave trade and a law to abolish slavery itself, for which the Abolitionists also asked. He again sug- gested that if the gentlemen who opposed the meas- ure " would be less liable to take alarm upon the slightest circumstance, and not be dreading every possible occurrence lest it should touch the particu- lar institution" which they cherish so much, they would, in his belief, " add safety and security to that institution itself." This bill, too, passed at length and the Compro- mise of 1850, <\fter not dissimilar struggles in the other house, was complete. This remarkable ses- sion of Congress finally adjourned on September 30th and Clay was enabled to return to " Ashland," where, as he wrote his son Thomas, on September 6th, while he was still held at Washington by the exactions of senatorial service, " I desire to be more than I ever did in my life." CHAPTER Xin THE LAST TWO YEARS It was Clay's sincere hope that the Compromise would apply to the nation's open wound, the heal- ing influences which he believed the great measure to contain. He did not think that the return of health, composure and good feeling would be instant. But he had lived through the Compromises of 1821 and 1833, and he thought that, as after those two' accommodations, better counsels would soon come to prevail. Some u ultra- Abolitionists " might ''con- tinue to agitate"— that would be " human nature." "The disappointed party are always mortified, vexed and irritated," said he, " and the successful party should bear with a great deal. But the peo- ple of the country at large, the people of the United States are satisfied with this series of measures. And I venture to say that, although here and there a voice may be raised to excite and agitate, the great mass of the people everywhere rejoice and are glad that these questions have been settled." ' Clay, of course, as we know to-day, erred in his judgment, but he erred with entire sincerity. He saw that the old balance between the free and the slave states must cease ; that slavery, for which he had no love, would probably at some time, in some way, succumb. Meantime, come what might, it 1 Colton, Vol. VI, p. 590. THE LAST TWO YEARS 369 was his wish to keep the sections, in as much har- mony as possible, within the Union. To that end he pat forth every energy, and if the country could have gone on without a clash of arms, his would still seem to be, as it was before that event, one of the greatest names in our public life. The war came to disturb our view of the men who in Clay's age gave their all to avert it, making way in popular inter- est for Lincoln and those whose service consisted in its successful prosecution. It was Clay's wish, as he told the Southern hotspurs, during the great de- bate upon the Compromise, not to live to witness this "heartrending'' spectacle, and he was spared that distress. In the middle of December, 1850, he was again in Washington, ready to attend upon the short session of Congress. His relations with President Fillmore were, as he said, " perfectly friendly and confidential." He and Webster sat side by side at Jenny Lind's concert, and renewed their old Whig friendships on many occasions. In the hope of con- tributing to the popular calm, which the Com- promise was slow to restore, a declaration and pledge was framed for general circulation. It was signed by forty-four prominent members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Clay's name leading the number. It ran as follows : " The undersigned members of the Thirty-first Congress of the United States, believing that the re- newal of sectional controversy upon the subject of slavery would be both dangerous to the Union, and destructive of its peace, and seeing no mode by which such controversy can be avoided, except by 370 HENRY CLAY a stout adherence to the settlement thereof effected by the Compromise passed at the last session of Congress, do hereby declare their intention to main- tain the said settlement inviolate, and to resist all attempts to repeal or alter the acts aforesaid, unless by the general consent of the friends of the measure, and to remedy such evils, if any, as time and ex- perience may develop. And, for the purpose of making this resolution effective, they further de- clare that they will not support for the office of President, or Vice-President, or senator, or of representative in Congress, or as member of a state legislature, any man of whatever party who is not known to be opposed to the disturbance aforesaid ; and to the renewal, in any form, of agitation upon the subject of slavery hereafter." " Washington, January 22, 1851." It was not a very sound or substantial peace which needed the pledges of citizens to sustain it. In the South, the echoes of the Nashville Convention still reverberated ; in the North the free negroes were running in fright from the " man-hunters " of the Fugitive Slave Law, while the Abolitionists daily grew in determination and strength. Clay continued to denounce them impartially : — the Northern disunionists, as he regarded them, on the one hand, by whom he was brought to account by members like Hale and Chase ; and the Southern disunionists on the other, whose leading spokesman was Rnett, now seut to the Senate by South Carolina as a reward for his rebellious utterances. They were alike engaged in the work of trying to defeat the purposes of the Compromise. The Shad- rach case, involving the rescue of a fugitive slave by a mob in Boston from the hands of a deputy marshal, THE LAST TWO YEARS 371 who designed to carry him back to the South, called out a proclamation and a message from President Fillmore, and excited debates in Congress in which Clay took an active part with his old skill and fervor. But it was a fruitless exercise, and it was all, as he too well realized, a cry for peace when, yet at least, there was no peace. It was his desire to bring the Senate back to the old Whig policies ; so he spoke as in the past, on such subjects as the tariff and internal improvements, though with little suc- cess, and the session came to an end. Mr. Clay's cough did not grow better and when the Senate adjourned in March, he contemplated re- turning home by way of Cuba and New Orleans. This was especially urged upon him because of the condition of the Cumberland Eoad, at that season of the year almost impassable for horse or man. He sailed from New York for the softer Caribbean airs and was in " Ashland" again in April, " highly gratified " with his visit to that " delightful island," which was his description of Cuba. However, he gained little. On the way he wrote to his son James, who had lately returned from the mission to Lisbon, a post which his father had been able to secure for him, that he was " much reduced and en- feebled." " I must get rid of the cough," he said, " or it will dispose of me." He eagerly looked for- ward to the warm weather of summer hoping that it would restore him to comfort and strength. His friends still had the wish to make him the Whig leader in the presidential campaign of 1852, but he discouraged the movement. 372 HENRY CLAY To James Harlan, in 1850, Mr. Clay wrote : "It would be great folly in me at my age, with the un- certainty of life, and with a recollection of all the past, to say now that I would under any contin- gencies be a candidate. ... I have already publicly declared that I entertained no wish or ex- pectation of being a candidate, and I would solemnly proclaim that I never would be, under any circum- stances whatever, if I did not think that no citizen has aright thus absolutely to commit himself." ! To a friend who, in April, 1851, condoled with him over the nomination of General Taylor in 1848, he said that " it had now for him no other than an historical interest." Had he been the nominee, he was confident that he would have secured every electoral vote given to Taylor, and Ohio certainly and Indiana possibly, besides. His majority in Pennsylvania would have exceeded Taylor's. 2 In June, 1851, he wrote to his friend Daniel Ull- man, of New York, to say that he had not changed his mind on the subject of a further candidacy. ''Considering my age, the delicate state of my health, the frequency and the unsuccessful presen- tation of my name on former occasions, I feel an unconquerable repugnance to such a use of it again. I cannot, therefore, consent to it. I have been sometimes tempted publicly to announce that under no circumstances would I yield my consent to be brought forward as a candidate. But I have been restrained from taking that step by two consider- ations. The first was that I did not see any such general allusion to me, as a suitable person for the 1 Private Correspondence,' f>y. 605-606. 2 Ibid., p. 615, THE LAST TWO YEARS 373 office, as to make it proper that I should break silence and speak out ; and the second was that I have always thought that no citizen has a right to ostracize himself, and to refuse public service under all possible contingencies." He thought it quite clear that a Democrat would be elected in the ensuing year. As for him, if the choice must fall to a Democrat, he would prefer General Cass, who was in his opinion quite as able, quite as firm and possessed of " much more honesty and sincerity than Mr. Buchanan." Another ques- tion was coming forward in spite of the Compro- mise. It would involve " the right of any one of the states of the Union upon its owu separate will and pleasure to secede from the residue, and become a distinct and separate power. . . . For my own part I utterly deny the existence of any such right, and I think an attempt to exercise it ought to be resisted to the last extremity ; for it is, in part, a question of union or no union." Still plainer were his words in a letter from " Ashland " to Thomas B. Stevenson on May 17, 1851 : "You ask what is to be done if South Carolina secedes. I answer unhesitatingly that the Consti- tution and laws of the United States must continue to be enforced there with all the power of the Union, if necessary. Secession is treason ; and if it were not — if it were a legitimate and rightful exercise of power — it would be a virtual dissolution of the Union. For if one state may secede, every state may secede ; and how long in such a state of things could we be kept together? Suppose Kentucky 374 HENRY CLAY were to secede 1 Could the rest of the Union toler- ate a foreign power in their very bosom? There are those who think the Union must be preserved and kept together by an exclusive reliance upon love and reason. That is not my opinion. I have some confidence iu this instrumentality ; but de- pend upon it, that no human government can exist without the power of applying force, and the actual application of it in extreme cases. " The Compromise needed Clay's voice in its sup- port in all parts of the Union, but he was unable to respond to the calls upon him. A committee of citizens of New York urgently invited him to visit that state. He sent them a letter asking for a con- currence in the principles of the Compromise, in- cluding the Fugitive Slave Law, which was a part of the whole. There must be good faith in the en- forcement of that measure in order to make certain of the adherence of the South. But he did not neg- lect the radicals, the nullifiers and seceders of that section who were also so much at fault. Indeed^ they were the principal objects of his attention. If they made any attempt to execute their theories, he repeated that * ' the power, the authority and the dignity of the government ought to be maintained, and resistance put down at every hazard." After dwelling upon the excellencies of the gov- ernment under the Union, he continued: "To re- volt against such a government for anything which has passed would be so atrocious, and characterized by such extreme folly and madness, that we may search in vain for an example of it in human annals. We can look for its prototype only (if I THE LAST TWO YEARS 375 may be pardoned the allusion) to that diabolical revolt which, recorded on the pages of Holy Writ, has been illustrated and coinineinorated by the sublime genius of the immortal Milton." As the time for the opening of the next Congress approached, Mr. Clay's health was not sensibly better, but he went to Washington in December, 1851, returning to his rooms at the National Hotel. Horace Greeley came to speak of the asperities of the Fugitive Slave Law, which Clay sincerely re- gretted, and which he would have fought to exclude, if he had not been absent at Newport when the bill was passed by the Senate. Louis Kossuth, who was brought over in a United States man-of-war to re- ceive much public attention, also visited Clay, re- membered by the Hungarian patriots as the friend of the South Americans and of struggling Greece. The old statesman had been mellowed by time and experience, and he spoke cautiously. Sympathy he did not grudge the Hungarians, but he saw the futility, danger aud wrong of holding out the pros- pect of anything more. He spoke of the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon, on December 2, 1851, and in the light of this event despaired of " any present suc- cess for liberal institutions in Europe." " Far bet- ter is it for ourselves, for Hungary and for the cause of liberty," he continued, "that, adhering to our wise, pacific system and avoiding the distant wars of Europe, we should keep our lamp burning brightly on this Western shore, as a light to all nations, than to hazard its utter extinction amid the ruins of fallen and falling republics in Europe." At this session he was able to visit the Senate 376 HENRY CLAY chamber only once, when he made a few remarks on an unimportant topic. On Christmas Day, 1852, he wrote to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Thomas H. Clay, urging his family not to feel alarmed as to his condition. If there were a turn for the worse, he would immediately notify them by telegraph. He had all that he could need, — tempting food, kind friends and expert medical attention, which, how- ever, failed to relieve the cough that racked his frame and enfeebled him. There was " no prospect at present of immediate dissolution." He thought that he would live for some months, "long enough perhaps to reach home once more." His friends, in truth, were the soul of devotion to his every wish and requirement, and those who could not come conveyed to him their sympathy by letter, and offered to present themselves to assist in nursing him, or to do whatever his comfort could command. The winter was a very rigorous one in Washington, and the invalid often missed his daily drives because of the weather, which continued in- clement until late in April. His New York friends sent him a handsome medal of pure California gold, containing his head in high relief on one side, and a brief recital of his principal public acts on the other. It was enclosed in a silver case, and was at once a handsome and an interesting tribute which touched him deeply. The Colonization Society adopted a resolution of sympathy and reelected him its president. On March 14th he wrote to his son James that his condition was "stationary," except that he could get no sound, refreshing sleep, even with the use of an opiate nightly. He had taken THE LAST TWO YEARS 377 " immense quantities of drugs" without sensible benefit. The frequent letters which reached him from home afforded him much satisfaction and he had the intention of returning to Lexington, if strength were allowed him, in May or June. His interest in political matters did not at all abate, and he was conferred with and gave his opinion freely on the subject of the nomination of the Whig party for President, which was to be made in convention at Baltimore, on June 10th. He favored Fillmore as against either Webster or Scott, who were the leading candidates, since he seemed more likely to be acceptable in both sections, and promised to steer the middle course necessary to a maintenance of the principles of the Compromise. "The foundation of my preference is," he wrote, "that Mr. Fillmore has administered the executive government with signal success and ability. He has been tried and found true, faithful, honest and con- scientious. ... I think that prudence and wisdom had better restrain us from making any change without a necessity for it, the existence of which I do not now perceive." Late in April he telegraphed for his son Thomas, who went to Washington at once, and who soon wrote home that "there is no longer any hope of his reaching Kentucky alive. ' ' His father could not talk for five minutes at a time without exhaustion. Yet his mind was clear and his interest in public affairs was unabated. All through these weary days his patience and cheerfulness never failed. "No clouds overhung his future," said John C. Breckin- ridge in his eulogy in the House after the great 378 HENRY CLAY statesman's death. ' l He met the end with com- posure and his pathway to the grave was brightened by the immortal hopes which spring from the Chris- tian faith." 1 "Glorious as was his life," said John J. Critten- den, " there was nothing that became him like the leaving it. I saw him frequently during the slow and lingering disease which terminated his life. He was conscious of his approaching end, and prepared to meet it with all the resignation and fortitude of a Christian hero. He was all patience, meekness, and gentleness. These shone around him like a mild, celestial light breaking upon him from another world. And to add greater honors to his age than man can give, he died fearing God." 2 " Was there ever man had such friends ! " he ex- claimed again and again, as tokens of their sym- pathy and kindness came to him from all sides. The case seemed to defy the intelligent diagnosis of the medical practice of that day. The physicians in- sisted that the cough was not due to any affection of the lungs. He lingered on into June, when the heat added to his oppression. He gradually grew more and more feeble until it amazed all who were around him how he could live in his condition of extreme debility. Finally, on the morning of June 29th, the end was seen to be near. Thomas Clay was summoned to his bedside. " Sit near me, my dear son," he said, "I do not wish you to leave me for any time to-day." He asked for water. "I be- 1 Eulogy on Henry Clay in the House of Representatives, June 30, 1852, by John C. Breckinridge. 5 " Address on the Life and Death of Henry Clay," delivered at Louisville, September 29, 1852, by John J. Crittenden. THE LAST TWO YEARS 379 lieve, my sou, I am going," he added in a few mo- ments. He took Ms son's hand, holding it for some time. When he released it, it was discovered that he was dying. Others were summoned to the bed- side and at seventeen minutes past eleven life ceased. He had had many " progresses " through the country in life j he would have another as the corse was conveyed to Kentucky. "Oh, how sickening is the splendid pageantry I have to go through from this to Lexington," wrote Thomas Clay to his wife ; and it was a harrowing experience for a son, however well the ceremonies were intended. The Senate met at twelve o'clock. The news had reached it in the form of a rumor on the street and it immediately adjourned. The House also ad- journed, after the reading of the journal. President Fillmore, amid the general tolling of bells, closed the government departments. The next day cabinet officers, foreign ambas- sadors, members of the House, and many others made their way to the Senate chamber where the eulogies were to be pronounced. The death was announced by Mr. Clay's colleague, Joseph R. Un- derwood, who added a tribute, and offered resolu- tions embodying a proposal that a committee of six be appointed to superintend the funeral in Wash- ington, which was set for the following day, July 1st. He suggested further that another committee of six be named to accompany the remains to the place of sepulture, which Mr. Clay had selected, the ceme- tery where many of his friends and relations were buried in Lexington, Ky. Speeches from General 380 HENRY CLAY Cass, Robert M. Hunter, John P. Hale, William H. Seward, George W. Jones and others followed, whereupon as an additional mark of respect the Senate adjourned. There were similar proceedings in the House. The next day the members of both houses, the authorities of the city of Washington, several mili- tary companies, — all together a large concourse of people, — accompanied the remains from the National Hotel to the Senate chamber where, in the presence of the President of the United States and a very distinguished company, the funeral services were held. Dr. Butler, the chaplain of the Senate, spoke from the text— " How is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod!" The scenes at Washington were being repeated all over the land. Dr. Butler said : "For more than a thousand miles — East, West, North and South— it is known and remembered that at this place and hour, a nation's representatives assemble to do honor to him whose fame is now a nation's heritage. A nation's mighty heart throbs against this Capitol, and beats through you. In many cities banners droop, bells toll, cannons boom, funereal draperies wave. In crowded streets and on sounding wharves, upon steamboats and upon cars, in fields and in workshops, in homes, in schools, millions of men, women and children have their thoughts fixed upon this scene and say mourn- fully to each other, 'This is the hour in which, at the Capitol, the nation's representatives are bury- ing Henry Clay ! Burying Henry Clay ! ' Bury the records of your country's history — bury the THE LAST TWO YEARS 381 hearts of living millions — bury the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, and the spreading lands from sea to sea, with which his name is inseparably associ- ated, and even then you could not bury Henry Clay — for he lives in other lands and speaks in other tongues, and to other times than ours." 1 After these rites were said, the cortege proceeded, by a railway train, appropriately draped in black, to Baltimore, on its way to Lexington, through Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Eochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- nati, Louisville and Frankfort. At these, and many intermediate places, thousands upon thou- sands of people assembled to pay their last honors to the great statesman. The newspapers of the land, the pulpit, and secular associations of many kinds throughout these days poured out their tributes, which were everywhere warm, affectionate and full of praise. In Philadelphia, where the arrival was at night, a procession headed by torches was formed, and the iron coffin was borne to the State House to remain until morning under the guard of the Washington Grays, a prominent local military company. "The whole population here," it is said, " ap- peared to be gathered on the line of march, and a deep, reverent, eloquent silence, like the silence of death itself, pervaded the mighty multitude ; above it all, rendered more audible and impressive by the contrast, was heard the slow, measured tread of the long funeral train, the tolling bells, the booming 1 Obsequies of Henry Clay, printed by the Common Council of New York. 382 HENRY CLAY minute gun and the mournful roll of the muffled drum." * The next day thousands of people viewed the coffin, and the journey was continued by steamboat and railway to New York. There the body of the lamented statesman was deposited in the Governor's Room at the City Hall, to remain over Sunday, which, as it happened, was the Fourth of July. It is said that 100, 000 persons at least paid their re- spects to the dead, all classes coming and going in solemn silence, as though they were attending the funeral of a beloved friend. The departure from New York was effected on Monday morning. As the procession reached the boat, the band played "Should auld acquaintance be forgot," and there was not a dry eye in the assemblage. On the way up the Hudson the bell of the steamer constantly tolled, and boats which were met stopped, lowered their flags and sounded their bells. The shores of the river everywhere exhibited flags at half-mast, funeral arches, tolling bells, booming cannon and sorrowing people. Stops were made at some of the towns when the assembled crowds were allowed to come on board to view the coffin. Thus the cortege continued on its way, amid every sign of popular mourning, until it reached Lexing- ton. Women, who everywhere were generally dressed in black, wept and kissed the sable vest- ments hung around the coffin. Strong men stood beside it and burst into uncontrollable sobs. At sunset on Friday, July 9th, the committee of the Senate formally transferred the remains, by this 1 Obsequies. THE LAST TWO YEARS 383 time buried in flowers, wreaths and other emblems of the populace's attachment, made of cypress, ivy and laurel, to a committee of citizens. The chair- man of the senatorial delegation, Clay's colleague, Mr. Underwood, on this occasion said : " Our journey since we left Washington has been a continued procession. Everywhere the people have pressed forward to manifest their feelings toward the illustrious dead. Delegations from cities, towns and villages have waited on us. The pure and the lovely, the mothers and daughters of the land, as we passed, covered the coffin with gar- lands of flowers, and bedewed it with tears. It has been no triumphal procession in honor of a living man, stimulated by hopes of reward. It has been the voluntary tribute of a free and grateful people to the glorious dead." The speech in reply was made by Chief- Justice Rob^rtsoL., chairman of the Lexington Committee, whereupon a procession, preceded by a cavalcade of horsemen, was formed. Lighted by torches, it passed under the arches erected in honor of the dead statesman, whose life had brought so much renown to the city and the state, out to " Ashland," where Mrs. Clay and the members of the family awaited its arrival. The next day, Saturday, July 10th, was set for the funeral. Crowds came from all parts of Ken- tucky. The services were in charge of Eev. Edward F. Berkley, Rector of Christ Church in Lexington, by whom Mr. Clay had been baptized, and whose church he regularly attended when he was at home. The long procession was then formed and the re- 384 HENRY CLAY mains were taken to the spot where they were to sleep in the cemetery west of the city. 1 The large square funeral car was specially designed under the direction of the citizens of Lexington. It was drawn by eight horses, handsomely caparisoned, the cloth covering them being fringed with silver bullion. Each animal was led by a black groom in the funeral costume of the Moors. The body was temporarily interred in Mr. Clay's lot beside his mother's grave until a suitable tomb could be erected. This came in the form of a Corinthian column one hundred and twenty feet high built of Kentucky granite. To the crypt underneath this imposing shaft the remains were re- moved and placed in a marble sarcophagus which was the gift of a devoted friend John Struthers of Philadelphia. They now repose there beside Mrs. Clay's, her death having occurred in 1864. On the sarcophagus are chiseled these words from Mr. Clay's farewell address to the Seuate : "I can, with unshaken confidence, appeal to the Divine Arbiter for the truth of the declaration that I have been influenced by no impure purpose, no personal motive, have sought no personal aggran- dizement, but that, in all my public acts, I have had 1 The day before his death he had said to his friend and col- league, Mr. Underwood, who sat beside him : " There may be some question where my remains shall be buried. Some per- sons may designate Frankfort. I wish to repose in the cemetery in Lexington, where many of ray friends and connections are buried." He had said in his farewell address to the Senate, March 31, 1842: "When the last scene shall forever close upon us, I hope that my earthly remains will be laid under her [Ken- tucky's] green sod with those of her gallant and patriotic sons." THE LAST TWO YEARS 385 a sole and single eye, and a warm, devoted heart, directed and dedicated to what, in my best judg- ment, I believed to be the true interests of my country." New York City, which had always been a centre for Mr. Clay's admirers, prepared special memorial ceremonies for July 20th. There was a handsome funeral car bearing a banner of white silk upon which these words were embroidered in black : "Hearts which glow for freedom's sway Come and mourn for Henry Clay." The procession included state and city officials from New York and neighboring states and cities, militia companies and other societies. It moved in fifteen divisions and was the greatest pageant which up to that time had ever taken place in New York. It was marked by much solemnity and an outpouring of sincere feeling on the part of the people. The cere- monies were concluded by an oration in the Park. Thus Mr. Clay's career came to an end in the midst of his country's trials, which it had been his self-sacrificing task at Washington for the last months of his life to try in some way to allay. Well indeed was it said, upon his funeral day in Lexing- ton, that, " if in future any one section of this great republic should be arrayed in hostility against an- other," the "Genius of Liberty " should come down " in anguish and in tears, and throwing herself prostrate before his tomb implore the Mighty Ruler of nations ... to raise up from his ashes another Clay." 1 1 Last Seven Years, p. 449. 386 HENRY CLAY May he not seem to have presented himself in the person of Abraham Lincoln ? Though Mr. Clay be looked upon as the man of compromise, he never stepped aside as much as a hair's breadth when the safety of the Union was at stake. 1 His ringing- speeches of 1850 surpass in devotion to the govern- ment the utterances of the Republican leaders who came upon the scene ten years later. Can any one believe for a moment that Clay, if his life had been cast in the later decades of the century, would have abated the least particle of his patriotic faith ? 1 ''In the character of Henry Clay, that which will commend him most to posterity is his love of the Union, or, to take a more comprehensive form of expression, his patriotism, his love for his country, his love for his whole country. He repeatedly declares in his letters that on crossing the ocean to serve in a foreign land, every tie of party was forgotten, and that he knew himself only as an American. At home he could be impetuous, swift in decision, unflinching, of an imperative will, and yet in his action as a guiding statesman, whenever measures came up that threatened to rend the continent in twain, he was inflex- ible in his resolve to uphold the Constitution and the Union." — "A Few Words about Henry Clay," by George Bancroft, Century Magazine, July, 18^5, p. 481. CHAPTER XIV PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS The personality of every important character in history forms an interesting study, and a knowledge of Henry Clay's is more than usually essential be- cause so much of all that he was was bound up with this personality. He was preeminently an orator. His influence grew out of his extraordinary gift of public speech. As soon as it was known that he could sway large audiences, winning them to laughter, moving them to tears, arousing them to action, he was destined to occupy a great place in our public life. It is fre- quently said that this is not an age of oratory, and that results are achieved by more rapid and, as a rule, more brutal processes. If this be taken to mean that it is an age which is not conducive to the development of oratory, the charge is unquestion- ably true. It is probable that a man with a like gift in this day — if there should be another — would think it not worth his while to devote his talents to such a use. He would seek the greater gains to be reaped from business or law. He would despair of our public life from which the graces and amenities of debate, the reasoning habit and the high stand- ards of constitutional disquisition have largely de- parted, and he would not train himself for oratory. While all this is probably true, it is undeniable 388 HENRY CLAf that, if such an orator as Henry Clay should appear upon the scene, every one would stop to hear him. Money getting could be postponed and all those in- terests which absorb Americans of this day, mak- ing them impatient in argument and eager to reach their euds rapidly, would be sent to the backgrouud, while they listened in rapt admiration to his sono- rous seuteuces aud sat in wonderment in the pres- ence of his splendid gifts. There are many to say that Clay's speeches do not have the vital quality of Burke's, for example, and of those of many of the famous orators of his- tory. It is likely that this judgment often springs from an inadequate reading of Clay, who suffers by comparison because his speeches have never been properly collected and edited, and still more because of the Civil War. As has been said before, this event wholly changed the current of our national life, in a singular way obscuring the reputations of great men who strove to avert it, and who would have kept the nation whole without this trial by fire. The objects and purposes which they had in view, however patriotic, were swept away, meaning little except to students of history, and having been set aside by the absorbing issues of 1860-1865, they cannot be restored to place in public attention or reverence. While Lincoln's utterances, much less numerous, much less finished in some regards than many of Clay's, seem endowed with the immortal quality, may it not be that this result has been ar- rived at principally because of the subjects to which they relate ! Not many claims are made for Lin- coln's speeches in the joint debates with Douglas. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 389 Yet it is to these, to the first and second inaugural addresses and the famous speech at Gettysburg that the Lincoln advocate will invariably point. It is said, of course, that a great part of Clay's power was in his incomparable voice, his facial ex- pression, the movements of his graceful body ; and there is truth in these observations, though he who emphasizes them is in danger of conveying a false impression. These traits of the orator he had in a remarkable degree, but he never relied upon them to the exclusion of the more substantial elements of success. He did not go into a contest without preparation, thinking to win by his natural gifts. He did not fail to read and investigate, because he might have moved the people before him without reading and investigation. There are in existence the most elaborate collections of notes and quota- tions which he made for some of his principal speeches. When he had not prepared himself he was likely to say so, thus indicating that he did not wish his speech to be judged by the high standards which he long before had set up for himself as an orator, and from which he never willingly made a departure. He had the natural fire, however, of Patrick Henry, with whom, on this ground, he may, perhaps, be more fairly compared than with any other American orator ; and his quickness in repartee and readiness in a running debate with any adversary, constituted him the matchless leader, which he never could have been merely by dint of skill in the studied oration. James O. Harrison at one time heard Mr. Clay declare that his habit had always been ' l never to 390 HENKY CLAY attempt au argument on any matter of importance without having fully prepared himself." Once during the Tyler administration Senator Kives, of Virginia, launched an attack against Clay, who, when it was concluded, instantly rose for reply. His friends urged him to take time for preparation and made a motion to adjourn. "No," said he, "when I am assailed I am always ready for de- fense." Thomas F. Marshall, who was then in the House, himself an able orator, used to say that this was " by all odds the greatest speech he had ever heard from Mr. Clay." When Clay had fin- ished JohnQuincy Adams, who was present, grasped the hand of a friend and exclaimed, "That's the Henry Clay of 1812 ! " The speech was full of the natural fire of the orator's youth, when by his ap- peals he had led the nation into its second war of independence. Another who heard the speech said : "Mr. Clay not only went far beyond my expectations but in that reply surpassed in resistless power all I have ever heard, or have ever conceived of human elo- quence." ' 'Harrison MS. This speech was delivered on August 19, 1841. (Colton, Vol. V, p. 291 et seq.) It was on the subject of the veto of the bank bill. In it Mr. Clay originated the phrase " corporal's guard." The statement that this was the best of the orator's speeches must be taken with caution. Each seemed to be his best in the judgment of those who came under its spell. Mr. Clay himself, however, when he was asked which he considered "the most effective and powerful," said: "There is a portion of the speech on the veto of Mr. Tyler of the bank bill, in reply to Mr. Eives, which produced the most electrifying effect of anything I ever uttered. The 'nmediate subject was patriotism." — Mrs. Maury, Statesmen of America in 1846, p. 437. PEKSONAL CHAKACTEKISTICS 391 It was said, and may still to-day be said with truth, that Clay's speeches do not exhibit profound learning. John Quincy Adams was accustomed to speak lightly of his reading, and from the Adams standpoint it was in essential ways deficient. It did not cover the ground which must have been traversed by such orators as Daniel Webster or Charles Sumner, but nevertheless Clay's addresses were very far from lacking intellectual appeal. They were heard with satisfaction and profit by Americans of the best mental types. It was from these classes that his party drew its strength. In additiou to a full ac- quaintance with American constitutional, political and economic history, his addresses reflect a gen- eral knowledge of the history of ancient and modern government in Europe. Self-educated he was, but he read widely and to good purpose from the point of view of the popular orator, and both in writing and speech he developed a style which was simple, direct and full of charm. No one could truthfully say that he left out of account the minds of his hearers while he aimed to excite their natural feel- ings. His was an appeal to the reason as well as to the emotions, and if he erred sometimes in his premises, or there were faults in his logic, a re- reading of his speeches will show that his failures were not so much greater than those of other men. Calhoun could taunt him with not having any love for metaphysics, Webster and Adams for no acquaint- ance with the classics, but in the ability to under- stand human character and address the common sense he had no superior, as they very well knew. During the battle of the tricksters in parliamen- 392 HENRY CLAY tary rule, to delay and defeat the compromise acts of 1850, Clay expressed his own views respecting debate in a legislative chamber and he was always willing to abide by them. He said : "For myself I differ perhaps from most members of this body, or of any deliberative body, on this subject. I am for the trial of mind against mind, of argument against argument, of reason against reason, and when after such employment of our intellectual faculties, I find myself in the minority, I am for submitting to the act of the majority. I am not for resorting to ad- journments, calls for the yeas and nays, and other dilatory proceedings iu order to delay that which, if the Constitution has full and fair operation, must inevitably take place." ' Mr. Harrison's estimates of Clay as a public speaker are of interest, as they come from one who had long and intimate acquaintance with the great orator : t l A notion has been entertained by some who knew but little of his habits, or the loftiness of his temperament or character, that Mr. Clay was but an impulsive orator, — dashing and reckless, — always ready for a speech, a frolic, or a fight, and never taking time for preparation however difficult or weighty the subject, or the occasion. Every such notion is utterly unfounded and untrue. He was exceedingly painstaking in the ascertainment of facts and in his way was one of the most laborious and methodical of men. His way, however, his mode of preparation, somewhat peculiar, was the result of his temperament, his early training, and the pressure of the times under which he was reared. 1 Coltou, Vol. VI, pp. 411-412. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 393 His happy adjustment by nature, of heart and brain, had, under the hard surroundings of his early life, developed in him a manhood, ever fresh, fearless, self-reliant, buoyant and commanding. " His notions of honor and duty, fashioned and fixed as they were by the sturdy civilization of that period, inspired and instinctively guided him throughout his after life, private as well as public. He, fashioned to that standard in his youth and tested by it, was to be the gentleman without re- proach, the patriot without fear. Made up as he was and trained as he had been, he must follow those notions of honor and of duty, however l rough hewn ' they were, and however fearful the ordeal through which they might lead him. He feared a taint upon his honor, as he understood honor, far more than he feared death. He never turned aside for any 'lion in his path.' On the contrary, 'the lion in his path ' gave intensity to his purpose, his courage, and his unflinching defiance ; and should he fall, as fall he might in some such encounter whether public or private, it should be as a martyr to his own high convictions. His whole career was in harmony with his peculiar temperament. He was so true to his own nature — to himself — that any one well acquainted with the man would have but little difficulty in foretelling how he would act under given circumstances. "Though one of the frankest of men, he seldom counseled with any one as to his duty, public or private; and seldom wrote any of his speeches. Being at an early age a deputy in the Chancery of- fice at Richmond, he, of course, was thrown not only among business men and business questions of that day, but among the most prominent lawyers and statesmen of Virginia, and at a time when the rights of man and the constitutional powers of the young republic were the absorbing questions, and he must then have contracted not only those exact business habits which characterized him in after 394 HENRY CLAY life, but he must have also learned there his first lessons as to the rights of the people, and the duty of their representatives. "By a happy chance, that was the very school the best suited of all others to the natural tendencies of the youth. Those public questions caught his fancy, they seized his heart and brain, and they must have been the subject of his thoughts whenever he had time for quiet meditation. And those thoughts throbbing in his own brain must have ut- terance and in words infused with his own fire. He, therefore, was soon in the habit not only of prepar- ing his thoughts for utterance, but of declaiming them when alone in his room, or in the fields, or woods ; and this self-discipline in his youth, the habit of preparation, became the fixed habit of his life. u His first attempts at actual debate were in a de- bating society at Richmond, made up of youth of about his own age, and as some of them were no doubt well educated, a more thorough preparation by him was then necessary. He knew nothing of the logic, or rhetoric, or philosophy of the schools and had no Roscius or Talma to train his gesticula- tion, his mauner, or his voice. He, however, was familiar with the public questions of the day and had in himself what neither the schools, nor any artifi- cial aid could supply. Nature had trusted him with the key to the human heart and to the common sense of mankind, and he knew intuitively how and when to use it." Mr. Harrison continues his observations : " He seemed to have not only an instinctive con- sciousness of his own strength but of his own special capacity for leadership, and therefore he would take the lead, whatever the occasion, and as nat- urally and as gracefully as if it were his birthright. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 395 Few, therefore, if airy, ever were surprised that he had taken the place for which nature seemed to have designed him. Indeed, without any appear- ance of self-assertion on his part, and as if uucon- sciously to himself, there was a something in his presence and manner that gave to him a somewhat authoritative air and made him, for the time, the central, the commanding figure of the group about him. " Strangers, persons who never saw him, and who, of course, never felt the potency of his pres- ence and manner, can hardly understand the sort of impression made on others by what was called the magnetism of the man. They would probably infer from my general account of him, that there must have been in his presence and manner some mani- festation of arrogance and vanity. There was, how- ever, in his geueral intercourse no manifestation of either. I think he was as free of vanity as any one I ever knew. Though often with him I never knew him to make himself the hero of his own story, and when questioned, as he occasionally was by me and others, in my presence, in regard to any matter in which he had taken a prominent part, he would merely state the facts : the several steps by which results were reached, and then the naked results, and just as if there was nothing remarkable in his own part in bringiug them about. "But whatever the occasion, or his mood, or whatever the company or the subject of conversa- tion, there was a something in his presence and manner to impress those around him that, within his personality and beneath that manner there was a power, a force of character to be respected, feared, followed and honored. Had this quiet force been arrogantly or ostentatiously displayed, it would have broken the charm that made him so attractive and at the same time so commanding. I never saw an approach to any such display, unless possibly in some stormy debate, when, with a monarch's voice 396 HENRY CLAY and in an attitude oi' lofty defiance, he would spurn assaults, whether direct, or indirect, upon his principles, his consistency, or his honor. ''Probably, the idea I have attempted above to describe would be more readily seen by an illustra- tion than by my description of it. Though we were often together, and though we talked of any matter, however unimportant, that casually came up, yet I was never with him, whether alone or w T ith company, without feeling I was in the presence of a great power. My supposition was, that this feeling on my part was the result of my personal admiration, or possibly of some peculiarity in my own tempera- ment, but, on inquiry of others less emotional than myself, I found that in every instance the impres- sion made on them by his presence and manner was identical with that made on me. "The why and the wherefore were a mystery then, and are a mystery now, unless it be that hu- man nature is so organized that the weaker force is instinctively conscious of the fact in the presence of the superior force. " Mr. Clay's complexion was very fair. His eyes were gray, and when excited full of fire ; his fore- head high and capacious and with a tendency to baldness ; his nose prominent, very slightly arched and finely formed ; his mouth unusually large with- out being disfiguring ; it, however, was so large as to attract immediate notice, — so large indeed, that, as he said) he never learned how to spit. He had learned to snuff and smoke tobacco, and but for his unmanageable mouth, he would probably have learned to chew it also. He also could not whistle. On his trip to Europe, in connection with the ne- gotiation of the Treaty of Ghent, while he was in London there was a demand for Yankee Doodle. The bandmaster did not know the tune, but if some one would whistle it he promised to have it played. Mr. Clay had to decline but he called upon his negro body-servant Aaron, who whistled well, and PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 397 the British musicians soon caught up the refrain on their instruments. "His chief physical peculiarity, however, was in the structure of his nervous system. It was so deli- cately strung that a word, a touch, a memory would set it in motion. Though his nervous system was thus sensitive, yet his emotions, however greatly excited, were of themselves never strong enough to disturb the self-poise of his deliberate judgment. His convictions of duty were fixed as fate, and yet, as I thought, he was the most emotional man I ever knew. I have seen his eyes iill instantly on shaking the hand of an old friend, however obscure, who had stood by him in his early struggles, and whom, after a long interval, he had suddenly met. I have seen the letter of a grandchild, then residing in a distant state, drop from his hand when reading it aloud to some members of his family, — his eyes were too full of tears to see, and his tongue too full of emotion to utter the touching words. I read the letter. There was not even a suggestion in it to give pain. It was only the loving letter of a child, full of tender mes- sages to her grandmother and to him. "His sympathies were as wide as human nature, and were alive not only to its struggles and its vir- tues, but even to its infirmities ; in case of any great affliction in the family of a friend or neighbor, his condolence was ever ready, and in a manner and tone of voice almost as tender, and as touching, and as natural as if the affliction were his own. "This emotional nature, so natural to him and always so naturally shown, was a marked character- istic and a great element of his power over the heart. His magnetic power was the natural result of the lofty, the unmistakably and generously tempered manliness of the man, — the outcrop of the great ele- ments that, combined, made him inevitably what he was. "The muscles of his face, even iu old age, never had any of the rigidity, or leathery appearance, or 398 HENRY CLAY toughness, which sometimes accompanies old age. On the contrary, his features were apparently al- ways as tender and as flexible as the features of a child, and expressed as naturally and as readily as do the features of a child the emotion of a moment, whatever the emotion was ; and when in high de- bate, every muscle, his whole physical structure, would be alive with the lofty passion that was giv- ing tire and force to every thought he uttered. k 'l have never seen any one but himself whose whole physical structure so readily and so naturally responded to its own emotions and passions, nor ever heard any voice but his own, that so harmonized with whatever he felt and uttered. Indeed, even when there would seem to be no occasion for any great emotion, or for the display of it, yet if the subject presented issues of great concern to his client, to the public, or to himself, his heart, full of the subject and as if oppressed by its responsibility, would manifest its emotion not only in the prelimi- nary outline of the facts to be considered, but would occasionally manifest its emotion even before he had uttered a word. You would see the emotion in his whole person as he slowly rose to his feet. You would see it in his drooping posture, in the deathly pallor of his face, in his brimful eyes, in the spasmodic twitching of his under lip, and upon the utterance of the first sentence, you would hear the emotion in the touching tones of his magnetic voice. They all harmonized, and naturally, and without effort, with the emotions, passions and utterances of the moment. It was nature visibly at work, and bringing into harmonious action, before your own eyes, all the great elements, mental, moral, and physical, of his nature, and this rare combination of force actively enlisted in high debate, gave his eloquence a natural- ness, a concentrated earnestness and impetuosity that for the time was overwhelming." Much testimony is at hand to corroborate Mr. Har- PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 399 rison ou the subject of Mr. Clay's voice. It was like some delicately attuned musical instrument, which he could use for the exx^ression of every emo- tion within the human range, while his control and employment not only of his hands in gesture, but also of other parts of his body, was developed into a fine ait. ' l No such voice was ever heard elsewhere, ' ' wrote Ben Perley Poore. "It was equally distinct and clear, whether at its highest key or lowest whisper ; rich, musical, captivating. His action was the spontaneous offspring of the passing thought. He gesticulated all over. The nodding of his head hung on a long neck, his arms, hands, fingers, feet, and even his spectacles, his snuff-box and his pocket handkerchief aided him in debate. He stepped forward and backward, and from the right to the left with effect. Every thought spoke ; the whole body had its story to tell and added to the attractions of his able argument. ' ' A striking evidence of his power of making his thoughts speak through his body was given in a meeting held in the public square in Lexington in May, 1843. The address was never published. It was made to repel the attacks directed against him at that time in his own state. He could not rest quietly under them. Although his friends tried to dissuade him from taking notice of the malignant authors of the charges, he sought this opportunity to appear in his own defense. He began : " Fellow citizens — I am now an old man — quite an old man." Here he bowed himself very low, as if bent with the burdens of age. " But yet it will be 400 HEKBY CLAY found," he continued, " that I am not tooold to vin- dicate my principles, to stand by my friends, or to defend myself." His voice was growing louder each moment and he was elevating himself in the most impressive way as he went on to his climax. "I feel like an old stag which has been long coursed by the hunters and the hounds, through brakes and briers, and o'er distant plains, and has at last returned to his ancient lair to lay himself down and die. And yet the vile curs of party are barking at my heels, and the bloodhounds of per- sonal malignity are aiming at my throat. I scorn and defy them as I ever did." As he uttered these concluding words, he extended his frame to its greatest limit, stretched his arms, his hands widely spread, above his head until his tall person seemed twice its normal height. The ef- fect, it is needless to say, was greatly enhanced by the device. He knew how, always, to suit his action to an oratorical situation. Mr. Clay was never given to quotation from others. As Mr. Winthrop truly says, his own store- house was so full that he had little need to bor- row. When he attempted to repeat even familiar passages, he did it awkwardly and often incor- rectly. " What is it," he asked Senator Evans of Maine one day, u that Shakespeare says about a rose smell- ing as sweet? Write me down those lines, and be sure you get them exactly right, and let them be in a large, legible hand." Evans sent to the library for a copy of Shake - PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 401 speare to make sure of his ground, aud then wrote the lines as he had been directed : ' What's in a name ? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." When Clay came to the place in his speech at which he wished to make use of the quotation, however, he stumbled over his notes and then unable to find the written words, exclaimed — "A rose will smell the same call it what you will." His friends had many such anecdotes to tell about him. His figure was a lasting memory to Mr. Winthrop, as it was to all who ever came into contact with him. "As he sometimes sauntered across the Senate chamber, taking a pinch of snuff out of one friend's box or offering his own box to another," says this fine old Massachusetts Whig in his Memoir of the great Kentuckian, u he was a picture of affability and nonchalance. He had the genial, jaunty air of Lord Palmerston, whose peer he would have been as a cabinet minister or in Parliament, had lie chanced to have been born an Englishman, or an Irishman, instead of an American." Mr. Schurz formed this just estimate of Henry Clay as an orator : " They [his speeches] were the impassioned reasoning of a statesman intensely devoted to his country, and to the cause he thought right. There was no appearance of artifice in it. They made every listener feel that the man who ut- tered them was tremendously in earnest, and that the thoughts he expressed had not only passed through his brain, but also through his heart. They were the speeches of a great debater, and, as 402 HENRY CLAY may be said of those of Charles James Fox, cold print could never do them justice. To be fully ap- preciated they had to be heard on the theatre of action, in the hushed Senate chamber, or before the eagerly upturned faces of assembled multitudes. To feel the full charm of his lucid explanations and his winning persuasiveness, or the thrill which was flashed through the nerves of his hearers by the magnificent sunbursts of his enthusiasm, or the tierce thunder-storms of his anger and scorn, one had to hear that musical voice cajoling, flattering, inspiring, overawing, terrifying in turn . . . the whole man a superior being while he spoke." 1 Mr. Clay's personal charm was as great in con- versation as upon the platform. Horace Greeley tells of a member of Congress of the opposite party, who refused the offer of an introduction, lest he fall under the spell of the man and be swept away by admiration. It was General Glascock, who had been elected a representative from Georgia during the excitement over the removal of the deposits from the United States Bank. u General," said a friend at a reception in Wash- ington, u shall I make you acquainted with Mr. Clay?" " No, sir," was the prompt and stern response. " I choose not to be fascinated and moulded by him, as friend and foe appear to be, and I shall therefore decline his acquaintance." 2 A venerable earl in England who was too feeble to come to pay his respects to the American com- 1 Schurz, Vol. I, pp. 325-326. 2 Home* of American Statesmen, p. 380. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 403 niissioners after the successful negotiation of the Treaty of Ghent, and to whose home they therefore repaired, was subsequently asked which one of the number he preferred. " Ah," he exclaimed, " I enjoyed them all but I liked the Kentucky man best." "I have admired and trusted many statesmen," said Horace Greeley. "I profoundly loved Henry Clay. ... I loved him for his generous nature, his gallant bearing, his thrilling eloquence and his lifelong devotion to what I deemed our country's unity, prosperity and just renown." 1 Charles Dickens, in describing various American statesmen, contented himself when he came to Clay by saying that he was a " perfectly enchanting and irresistible man." 2 As has been remarked many times elsewhere in this account of his life, his friends were the most devoted ever found in the train of any public man in American history. 3 Ladies would have taken off their cloaks to make a silken way for him in the streets ; men would have died cheerfully to have saved his life, or even to have accomplished his ele- vation to the presidency. They were constantly sending him valuable gifts and other tokens of their attached affections. Few at this day can compre- 1 Recollect ions, p 166. 2 Forster, Life of Dickens, p. 349. 3 Lord Morpeth made an exception for Canning in England. In his Travels in America he wrote: " I certainly never met any public man, either in his country or in mine, always ex- cepting Mr. Canning, who exercised such evident fascination over the minds and affections of his friends and followers as Henry Clay. I thought his society most attractive, easy, simple and genial with great natural dignity." 404 HENRY CLAY heod how valuable a boon the Cumberland Road was to the people of the Ohio and the Mississippi Valleys at the time it was built. Clay struggled year after year to extend and complete it. In 1820 a monument was placed upon this highway near Wheeliug in commemoration of his efforts in its be- half. The front of the base bears this inscription : 11 This monument was erected by Moses and Lydia Shepherd as a testimony of re- spect to Henry Clay, the eloquent defender of national rights and national independ- ence. ' ? On another side of the stone these words were in- scribed : "Time brings every amelioration and refinement most gratifyiug to rational man, and the humblest tlower freely plucked under the tree of liberty is more to be de- sired than all the trappings of royalty. " Anno Domini, 1820." No man may fully comprehend all of what there was in this remarkable personality to arouse such sentiments in men and women for whom he had done nothing, whom, in great numbers of instances, he did not know, indeed had not even seen. Perhaps something of the spell could have been communi- cated to later generations had the inventor of the phonograph contributed his device to the world at an earlier day. What would not now be given for a talking-machine, imperfect a contrivance as it is, which would reproduce the speeches of Washing- PEESONAL CHAEACTEEISTICS 405 ton, Clay, Webster and Lincoln as they fell from their own lips? Yet with all these friends Clay had the most ma- lignant enemies. Perhaps this was inevitable. A man of decided opinions, who is always fearless in expressing them, must expect to meet this fate in public life. He is bitterly hated by some for the very reasons that he is dearly loved by others. Clay's enemies, however, feared him and plied their arts behind his back by foul means. The great lie about bargain and corruption was circulated in dark places in the night. No one could be found to stand sponsor for it. It was denied in the most conclu- sive manner, again and again, only to be brought out by the Jackson party in some new backwoods settlement to bias the minds of ignorant people. Thurlow Weed and the men who accomplished Clay's defeat in the Harrisburg Convention in 1840, and nominated General Harrison, feared to come out into the open. They achieved their objects by subterranean schemes. Clay was not a match for such chicanery. It had not flourished in the age in which he had come forward as a public man. It was not any essential part of the equipment of the " Virginians." For the "trial of mind against mind" he contended consistently, and he had no favors to ask of any one in such a contest. In an age in which women disturb themselves in regard to the franchise, and assert that their " sex" is deficient in appreciation of political matters, simply because they do not have the opportunities and experiences of men, it is worth while to note the interest with which they pursued the career of 406 HENRY CLAY Henry Clay. They flocked to hear his speeches ; they read his speeches. No restriction upon their suffrage " rights " interfered with their enjoyment of the proceedings of Congress when he took part in the debates. His words, some one has said, were "like the sweetest notes of the lark in the ears of the whole female sex." Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith's enthusiasm over- flowed whenever she spoke of him. " With his un- rivaled and surpassing talents, his winning aM irresistible manners," she exclaimed one time in 1831, " what is it he cannot do ! " x Once when he was visiting at her home during his term as Secretary of State she wrote : * ' Never did I see this great man (for in native point of mind I never knew his equal) so interesting — nay, fasci- nating. I had heard of his possessing this power of captivation, which no one who was its object could resist, and I have before seen and felt its influence, but never in the same degree as upon this occasion." He was one of the most brilliant of conversational- ists, and could for hours analyze the characters of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and the early Presidents, and detail the history of their adminis- trations. He punctuated his spee- hes with original statement and anecdote. He sat upon his favorite seat on the sofa" in the firelight, or rather was " re- clining" there. " How graceful he looked face flushed with exercise and his countenance mated with some strong emotion. . . So in- teresting was his conversation, so captivating his frank, cordial manner, that I could almost have 1 First Forty Years, p. 325. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 407 said with Mr. Lyon — ' I could have listeued all night and many nights with delight ' — and with Mr. Ward have exclaimed, ' What a treat ! It is indeed the feast of reason and the flow of soul.- " l What another woman thought of Clay at a later day is to be found in the recollections of American statesmen, by Mrs. Sarah Myttou Maury. This talented English lady's observations cover 1846. 2 She saw Clay in retirement at "Ashland." It seemed like "Mount Vernon " to his countrymen and they made their pilgrimages thither in the same spirit. He was undoubtedly "the most popular man in America." Women both in England and the United States she thought naturally conserva- tive, and they were generally Whigs. "A lovely and graceful ornament, the ladies of America," she said, "are the chaplet of roses in which is wreathed the name of Henry Clay." They all told Mrs. Maury : "You cannot go back to your country without going to 'Ashland.' You never heard such a voice, you never knew such a man in England as our Mr. Clay." "All the children born in 1845 and 1846 are, I believe, called after him," she observed. "There is a little generation of two-year-old Henry Clays. Some ladies of Ithaca lavished upon me every sort of hospitality and kindness. 'How,' said I on parting, ' shall I repay you for so much goodness ? ' 'You are going to see Mr. Clay; ask him for an autograph and send it to us : you will have done much more for us than we have done for you.' " 1 First Forty Years, p. 298 et seq. 2 The Statesmen of America in 1846, p. 422 et seq. 408 HENEY CLAY Mrs. Maury had seen men of " firm and manly minds weep at the recollection of Mr. Clay's defeat in 1844." "If it were possible," however, she con- tinues, "that circumstance has increased his popu- larity, and has won for him the most unusual and extraordinary attachment throughout the Union that probably ever fell to the lot of any man, except the revered Washington. His character, manners, ap- pearance, voice, nay, even his dress had been minutely described to me long before I saw him ; every anecdote of his life is public property ; his house, his farm, his domestic circle all belong to society at large, to the country I might say ; and many could relate a few words or syllables uttered to them or their friends, or perhaps to indifferent persons, which they had by some fortunate chance caught as they fell from his honeyed lips." The visit to " Ashland" was no disappointment to Mrs. Maury. She was admitted by an old negro who explained that "Marster" was at home. Mr. Clay himself came at once to assist the guest to alight. When they had gone into the sitting-room, he read her letters of introduction. "You have about five thousand relations in Virginia and Ken- tucky, ' 9 he remarked laughing. ' ' Are you going to see them all? I have known many of them and they are all endorsed with virtue." The visitor spent a number of happy hours in the family. When many were present, Mrs. Clay would say, "Take him into the garden and talk with him there, for I know you wish it, and I will trust him with you." Then they went into the garden and he pointed PEKSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 409 out to the gnest the trees which he had planted with his own hands, cut for her " every flower" that she "looked upon or touched," conducted her to his stables to show her his fine cattle and his pets, and spoke to her on subjects of American and English politics. He nearly always " carried in his hand a full-blown rose with a short stem and frequently ad- dressed himself to its perfumed cup." In reply to an inquiry, he attributed much of his success as an orator to " a voice peculiarly adapted to produce the impressions I wished in public speaking ; now its melody, its music is gone." But "all this was said," it seemed to Mrs. Maury, "as if in mockery, in sounds of exquisite sweet- ness. ' ' A granddaughter with light blue eyes and flaxen hair, almost the image of the old statesman, would climb upon his knees when he sat down and make her way to his shoulder to twine her arms around his neck, play with his hair and kiss his head and face all over. When he walked she clasped his knees. "He called her ' Sophy J in the softest ac- cents ever heard, and she ran away in childish play- fulness, so to be called again." When Mrs. Maury left, as he placed her in the carriage, he held both her hands "in the strong grasp of friendship." "Let us trust," said he, "that we may meet again, either here or elsewhere ; and send those boys of yours to St. Louis, and let them come to me, and I will do all I can for them, and God in Heaven bless you." No human being, man or woman, could fail to be fascinated by such a person. His words lingered on 410 HENRY CLAY Mrs. Maury's ear, and dwelt in her heart as long as she lived. The enmities which pursued Mr. Clay through life, when they did not relate to the " corrupt bar- gain," found expression in attacks upon his private character. Mrs. Maury's, as well as many similar pictures, should dispose of such calumnies in so far as they relate to the gentleness and charm of his domestic relations. "He has from nature a fund of tenderness and sensibility,"' wrote Mrs. Smith in 1829. " Never can I forget the tears he shed over his dying infant, as it lay in my lap, and he kneeled by my side. With what deep tenderness did he gaze on it, until unable to witness its last agonies, he impressed a long tender kiss on its pale lips, murmuring out, ' Farewell, my little one,' and left the chamber ; and the next morning when obliged to speak to me about the funeral he walked the room for some time, in mournful silence, as if struggling to com- pose his feelings, so as to be able to give his direc- tions with calmness." ] That he played cards for money, especially in his youth ; that he raised horses for the race-track ; that he was a duelist ; and that he owned slaves, were subjects which engaged the attention of his foes. Were we to make a catalogue of the vices of oar leading public men, not more than a few of them would be found to be so free from serious re- proach on moral grounds. Games of chance were general pastimes in the early history of America, and we are not sufficiently free from their influences 1 First Forty Years, pp. 301-302. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 411 to day to be able to boast of our superior position. The racing of horses was an amusement for every inhabitant of England and America for many gen- erations, and it is by no means certain that it has not advantages over most of our newer forms of sport. Mr. Clay heartily denounced dueling, though in his early life his ardent temperament and the custom of his neighborhood made it difficult to re- sist it under great provocation. 1 He sincerely de- nounced slavery, though he continued to own negroes, and as late as 1850 spoke to his son Thomas about purchasing a few more because of the impos- sibility of hiring labor in Kentucky. His negroes enjoyed only the kindest treatment. Mrs. Clay did everything for their comfort in illness and old age. Aaron and Charles followed Mr. Clay faithfully on his journeys, and not one at "Ash- land " could be persuaded to leave so good a home even after he was emancipated. Clay's friends were constantly making him gifts of all kinds in testimony of their affection, and one in Alabama left him by will twenty-five or thirty slaves. He at once paid their way to New Orleans, put them upon a ship and sent them to Liberia. 2 In his last will of July 10, 1851, Mr. Clay made careful stipulations, similar to those which he recommended to the state of Kentucky, concerning the general emancipation of his slaves and their transportation to Africa. Such as were born after 1 It must be remembered that Abraham Lincoln once went out to fight and for a much smaller matter than any which ever called Henry Clay. 2 This fact is meutioned in his speech as president of the American Colonization Society at Washington, 1827. 412 HENRY CLAY January 1, 1850, he specified should be free, the males at twenty-eight and the females at twenty- five. For three years prior to this time they should be hired for wages which, forming a fund, should be used to defray the cost of carrying them out of the country. Again, their children should be free at birth and put under a system of apprenticeship until they should reach the age of twenty -one, when they in turn should be deported to Africa. If slaves were sold, he directed that " the members of fam- ilies shall not be separated without their consent." It was said during his life, and the statement was repeated after his death, that Mr. Clay was given to over-indulgence in liquors. His friend and ex- ecutor, Mr. Harrison, absolutely denies it. Mr. Clay was, of course, not a total abstainer at a time when the use of wine was general, if not universal, but that he ever injured his powers by intemper- ance is impossible to prove. One after another of these charges, made as they were, in the heat of party strife, when we judge Clay by the standards of the community and the time in which he lived, falls to the ground and needs no serious treatment at the hands of his biographers. It was likewise said that Clay was lacking in re- ligious sentiment and that his thought of such mat- ters came at the last hour. No reader of his speeches can escape the conclusion that he always had great reverence for the God reigning over all ; his al- lusions to the hand of Providence are frequent and bear evidence of flowing from a sincere heart. Mr. Clay became a communicant of the Episcopal Church in 1847. He had been a pewholder in PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 413 Christ Church, Lexington, from the time of his marriage, was a constant attendant there when at home, and was always deeply interested in its wel- fare. His father-in-law, Colonel Hart, was a mem- ber of this church, the first Episcopal church in Kentucky, and a liberal friend to it. Mr. Clay was baptized in the parlor at " Ashland, 7 ' June 22, 1847, and the rector of Christ Church, the Rev. Edward F. Berkley, who officiated, gave an ac- count of the ceremony. It had been stated that Mr. Clay had been immersed in a pond on his estate, and Mr. Berkley wrote to one who had made in- quiry concerning the truth of this report: "I baptized Mr. Clay in his parlor at ' Ashland,' at the same time administering the same ordinance to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Thomas H. Clay, and four of her children, on the 22d of June, 1847, a few special friends being present. The water was ap- plied by the hand, out of a large cut-glass urn which was numbered among his many rare presents and had been given him by a manufacturer of such wares in Pittsburg. It was said that this was the largest piece of cut glass then in existence. It may interest you to know that in the baptismal service of the Protestant Episcopal Church there are asked certain questions which the candidate is supposed to answer from the book. Seeing that Mr. Clay did not have a Prayer- Book in his hand, I suggested that the use of one might enable him more readily to reply to the questions. He replied, ' I think I shall be able to answer them,' and the readiness with which he answered, and his familiarity with the service gave evidence that he had made it a 414 HENRY CLAY personal study and was ready to stand by his declaration. ' ' Mr. Clay then was seventy years old. He had always been interested in religious subjects, but his life was spent amid the turmoil of politics for so many years that he felt the time had not come for the profession of his faith. In the Senate, in 1832, when he recommended a day of fasting and prayer on account of the approach of the Asiatic cholera, he said : " I am a member of no religious sect, and I am not a professor of religion. I regret that I am not. I wish that I was, aud I trust that I shall be. I have, and always have had, a profound regard for Chris- tianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its rites, its usages, and its observances. Among these, that which is proposed in this resolution, has always com- manded the respect of the good, and the devout, and I hope it will obtain the concurrence of the Senate." Many extracts from Mr. Clay's speeches could be given to show his religious sympathy. He always felt and exhibited profound respect for the religious beliefs of others, and his charity extended alike to Catholic and Jew. The only daughter of his be- loved daughter, Mrs. Erwin, wrote to him of her desire to become a nun, and in reply he said : "Your happiness, my dear grandchild, has ever been an object of intense anxiety and solicitude to us. Tf it is to be promoted by the execution of the purpose you have in view, I would not, if I could, dissuade you from it. I have no prejudice against the Catholic religion. On the contrary, I sincerely believe that Catholics who are truly religious are as PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 415 sure of eternal happiness in another world as the most pious Protestants. All that I hope is that you will not act on any sudden impulse, or ill-considered and immature resolution, but that you will deliber- ately, and again and again examine your own heart, and consult your best judgment before you consum- mate your intention. Write me at Washington, and, in the event of your taking the veil, let us know what provision exists for your support and comfort, and whether any, or what pecuniary aid may be proper, or expedient from your friends." It was reported that Mr. Clay, in a speech in the Senate, had used the word " Jew" as a term of re- proach and the following letter from Solomon Etting, of Baltimore, and Mr. Clay's reply, are of interest : "Baltimore, July 15, 1832. "Dear Sir: 1 1 You know that I am your friend, and, therefore, I write to you freely. Several of the re- ligious societies to which I belong, myself included, feel both surprised and hurt by the manner in which you introduced the expression ' the Jew ' in debate in the Senate of the United States, evidently apply- ing it as a reproachful designation of a man whom vop considered obnoxious in character and conduct. ( 'I do not know the person you allude to. The term 'the Jew,' as used by you, is considered il- liberal. If therefore you have no antipathy to the people of lhat religious society, I can readily be- lieve you will have no objection to explain to me, by a line, what induced the expression. " I am, with respect and esteem, " Your obt. st., "Sol. Etting. "Hon. H. Clay, "U. S. Senate, Washington." 416 HEXRY CLAY la answer to this letter Mr. Clay wrote : a Washington, 16th July, 1832. "My dear Sir : "I regret extremely to perceive from your letter of yesterday that you have thought it possible that a remark of mine applied to a subordinate offi- cer of the customs, who was in attendance here, was liable to an unfavorable interpretation in respect to Jews in general. Nothing could have been further from my intention. The remark was intended to describe a person, and not a nation. It was strictly, moreover, defensive. Some of my friends who were in the Senate had been attacked by General Hayne, as I thought rudely, for the assistance which they had rendered about the tariff. " In reply, I said that they were not the only per- sons attending on that object, but that on the other side Moses Myers (or Myers Moses, for I do not know his proper designation) had been summoned by the Secretary of the Treasury, and might be seen daily skipping about the House, and I proceeded to de- scribe his person. "I judge men, not exclusively by their nation, religion, etc., but by their personal conduct. "I have always had the happiness to enjoy the friendship of many Jews, among whom one of the Gratzs of Lexington, formerly of Philadelphia, stands in the most intimate and friendly relations to me, but I cannot doubt that there are bad Jews, as well as bad Christians, and bad Mohammedans. "I hope, my dear sir, that you will consider this letter perfectly satisfactory. " With great regard, " I am truly yours, "H. Clay. " Solomon Etting, Esq." In 1 849 Mr. Clay was a lay delegate to the Dio- cesan Convention at Frankfort, and it was said PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 417 that " tli is great and good man entered into the de- liberations of the convention with all the interest and animation he was wont to manifest on every subject which concerned the welfare of his fellow men. ' ' Unlike most Kentuckians, Mr. Clay was enabled to go through life without a military title. No one ever called him ' ' Colonel ' 7 ; he was always Mr. Clay. Being a kind, sympathetic neighbor, he was greatly beloved in Lexington. The interests of the town were very dear to him. For many years he was a trustee of Transylvania University, and at one time was a professor of law in this college which was the "pride and hope of the common weal th." It was "the first temple of science erected in the wilds of the West" he once wrote his friend Sena- tor Johnston, when bespeaking for it a favor at the hands of Congress. To his sense of propriety and his interest in the University, that institution owed a legacy which came to it in a time of great financial difficulty. Among the wealthy citizens of Lexing- ton was Colonel James Morrison, a friend and client of Mr. Clay, upon whom he called to write his will. After having provided for his family, there was still a large sum of money undevised. Of this Colonel Morrison asked to be allowed to make one of Mr. Clay's sons the legatee, that son hav- ing been named for Colonel Morrison. Mr. Clay promptly declined the gift, saying that Transyl- vania University would be a proper beneficiary. This suggestion was accepted and the pressing needs of the college were thus relieved. ' In all business matters Mr. Clay was most method- 418 HENRY CLAY ical and, though twice heavily embarrassed from having become surety for others, his credit was never impaired. His uniform custom was to pay a debt as soon as it was incurred, and his style of liv- ing was never marred by ostentation. ' ' In this connection," says Mr. Harrison, "it may not be amiss to notice a document, probably the last one ever executed by Mr. Clay, which illustrates more forcibly than any other I have ever seen, not only his exactness in business matters, but his sense of justice and the generosity of his nature in urging the fulfilment of a verbal promise he had made some years before. This document bears no date. His son Thomas, by whom it was written at his father's bedside, and at his dictation, informed me that it was subscribed to only a few days before his death. The document referred to, now before me, is as follows : " 'Memoranda of H. Clay " ( I leave with you [his son Thomas] a check on Messrs. Corcoran & Riggs for any balance standing to my credit in the books of their bank at the time you present the check. The balance now is about sixteen hundred dollars, but it may be diminished before you have occasion to apply for it. " 'Mr. Underwood will draw from the secretary of the Senate any balance due me there and pay it over to you. " ' Out of these funds I wish you to pay Dr. Hall's bill, the apothecary's bill, and Dr. Francis Jack- son's bill, of Philadelphia. " ' Whatever may be necessary to pay those debts, and may be necessary to bear your expenses to Ken- tucky, had better be appropriated and reserved ac- cordingly, and the balance to be converted in a bank PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 419 check on New York which will be safer to carry and more valuable in Kentucky. Ui I have settled with James G. Marshall, my servant, and at the end of this month he will have paid me all that I have advanced him, and I shall owe him two dollars. The deed for his lot in De- troit, which he assigned to me as security for being his endorser on a note in bank, is in my little trunk in your mother's room in a bundle marked, " Notes and valuable papers." I wish the deed taken oat and delivered to James, as the matter is settled. " ' The Messrs. Hunter who bought my Illinois laud, have been very punctual in paying me the purchase money as it became due heretofore. " ' The last payment of two thousand dollars is due me at Christmas. They have written me that they will come over and pay it, and at the same time re- ceive a pair of Durham calves as a present which I promised them. I wish that promise fulfilled. The heifer I bought from Mr. Hunt, a descendant of the imported cow, Lucretia, I design as one of the ani- mals to be presented. " i There is a note for upward of a thousand dol- lars among my papers, in the pocketbook, well se- cured and payable in New Orleans next November. My executors ought to send it there for collection. " Secretary of State, 82 ; annoyed at Clay, 91 ; attitude of toward South Americans, 96 ; buys Flor- ida, 101 ; denounces a trick by Clay, 1 14 ; praises Clay for Missouri Compromise, 1 24 ; in line for presidency, 135 ; votes cast for, 137 ; expresses views of Clay in diary, 1 39- 140 ; Clay de- cides to support, 141 ; bar- gain story started about, 142 ; elected President, 143; makes Clay Secretary of State, 143 ; vain explana- tions of, 143-144 ; praises Clay as Speaker, 145 ; comes to know Clay's worth, 148- 150 ; defends himself, 150 ; plans of for the nation, 15 1- 152; opinion of Randolph, 153; " Blifil and Black George," 153-154; tells of Clay's illness, 159-160 ; un- willing for Clay to resign, 160 ; on Amos Kendall, 163 his views of Jackson, 165 defeated by Jackson, 166 his " sun " sets, 168 ; fare- well to Clay, 1 68 ; offers Clay seat on Supreme Bench, 169; in House, 192; criti- cizes Clay, 1 92- 1 93 ; Clay- tells of his vote for, 252 ; Tyler approves Clay's vote for, 276 ; contest of for right of petition, 306; disappointed by Clay's defeat, 321 ; Clay visits, 333; death of, 334; praises Clay as orator, 390 ; criticizes his reading, 391. Alabama, admitted to Union, no. "Alabama Letters," Clay writes, 315-317 ; harm done ky> 318 ; Clay's opinion of slavery expressed in, 325. Alien and Sedition Laws, passed, 35 ; Clay opposes, 35-3 6 - Allen, John, 42-43- Ambrister, shot by Jackson, 97, 100. American Colonization Society, Clay speaks to, in 1827, 106; later speech before, 290-291 ; continued interest in, 325 ; again addresses, 332-333. " American system," Clay calls INDEX 435 protective tariff the, 132; he defends, 179-182, 191- 197; father ol, 186; in danger, 207 ; modified and saved, 214. Anderson, Richard C. f 152. Anti-Masons, oppose Jackson, 203 ; vote polled by, in 1832, 204. Arbuthnot, shot by Jackson, 97, 100. Arkansas, 1 10. Ashburton Treaty, 281. " Ashland," torn down, 7 ; pur- chased by state, 7 ; Clay ac- quires, 28 ; Harriet Marti- neau at, 28-29 ; Clay returns to, 125; Clay busy at, 172; in retreat at, 177, 217 ; Gen- eral Harrison visits, 274 ; mortgage on, lifted, 323 ; Clay's wish again to see, 367- Aurora, 222. Bancroft, George, his tribute to Clay, 386. Bank of the United States, asks to be rechartered, 57 ; Clay opposes, 58 ; Clay favors, 85- 86 ; Clay counsel for, 125 ; bill to recharter, 199 ; bill vetoed by Jackson, 200 ; issue in campaign of 1832, 204; Jackson removes deposits from, 221-222; Jackson cen- sured for policy in regard to, 223-227 ; resolution to re- store deposits to, 227 ; Clay still favors, 261 ; Tyler's veto of bill to recharter, 278 ; his second veto, 280. Barbour, James, 190. Bargain and corruption story, origin of, 142 ; long term of service of, 144 ; Randolph brings up, 1 54- 1 55 ; revival of, 15S, 174 ; Calhoun re- peats, 259 ; Jackson's last word on, 315. Barnwell, R. \V., defends Rhett, 361. Bayard, James A., appointed peace commissioner, 74. Bell, John, resolutions of, 353. Benton, Thomas H., mentioned, 80 ; supports Clay for Presi- dent, 136; his account of Clay-Randolph duel, 155 - 157 ; supports Jackson on bank issue, 200 ; leads ex- pungers, 237-242 ; describes Clay's farewell to the Senate, 287 ; in Senate in 1850, 345 ; on the " bleeding wounds," 356 ; a tilt with Clay, 359. Berkley, E. F., Rev., speaks at funeral, 383 ; baptizes Clay, 413- Berlin Decree, 48. Bernadotte, 365. Berrien, John M., 345. Bibb, William W., 59. Biddle, Nicholas, 230. Birney, James G., 313, 317. "Black Tariff," 181, 192. Blair, Francis P., 141, 159,425. Blennerhassett, Mrs., 45. " Blifil and Black George," Randolph's speech on, 153- !55- Bolivar, General, 95. Bolleman, Doctor, 41. Brazil, 95. Breckinridge, John, 24. Breckinridge, John C, 377. British Orders in Council, 48, 71. Brooke, Attorney-General, 19. Brooke, Francis, Clay's letters to, on repugnance to office, 147, 178-179; on masonry in politics, 203 ; on his own defeat, 204 ; on nullification, 208; on "Ashland," 217- 218; on the state of affairs, 436 INDEX 218-219; on trip to New York, 220, 243 ; on cam- paign of 1840, 262 ; on Ty- ler, 278 ; on elections of 1 84 1, 282; on retirement from Senate, 282. Brown, James, 24. Brown, William, 121. Buchanan, James, Clay's opin- ion of, 373 ; Clay annoys, 421-423. Burke, Edmund, 388. Burr, Aaron, 38-45. Burton, Lewis W., 7. Butler, A. P., senator of South Carolina, 345. Butler, Doctor, chaplain of Senate, 380. Calhoun, John C, young "war hawk," 60, 67, 125; inconsistencies of, 86 ; favors tariff, 86 ; changes views concerning tariff, 135 ; can- didate for President, 136; construes constitution strictly, 152; defeats tariff bill, 180; his "Exposition of 1828," 181 ; prodded by Clay, 194, 197 ; votes against Van Bu- ren, 198-199; his enmity for Jackson, 199; Jackson threat- ens to hang, 203 ; Jackson attacks theories of, 205-206 ; takes Hayne's place in Sen- ate, 206 ; argues his case in Senate, 208 ; confers with Clay, 209 ; speaks on com- promise, 211— 212; proud of result, 216 ; attacks Jackson for removing deposits, 222 ; opposes expunging, 239 ; Clay assails, 253-260; Clay calls metaphysical, 255 ; his public land scheme, 258 ; re- peats bargain story, 259 ; his theory as to hard times, 283 ; shakes Clay's hand, 286 ; on incendiary matter in mails, 292 ; resolutions on slavery, 293-294 ; irreconcilable, 294 ; commends speech of Clay on slavery, 297-298 ; Tyler's Secretary of State, 308 ; gains full control, 311 ; returned to Senate, 345 ; dying words of, 355 ; place taken by Barn- well, 361 ; opinion of Clay's oratory, 391. California, constitution for, 343 ; Clay favors admission of, as free state, 346, 349 ; in Omnibus Bill, 356 ; Clay op- poses Taylor's policy regard- ing, 358 ; admitted to Union, 366. Campbell, Representative, of Ohio, 119. Campbell, John B., 50. Canada, Clay's proposal to in- vade, 66. Carey, Henry C, 135. Carey, Mathew, 133, 135. Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 191. Cass, General Lewis, Clay re- fuses to support, 339 ; in Sen- ate, 345 ; Clay prefers, to Buchanan, 373 ; his eulogy of Clay, 380. Censure of Jackson by Senate, 223-227 ; expunged, 237- 242. Chase, S. P., 149, 345, 356, 37°- Cherokees in Georgia, Clay de- fends, 231-232. Cheves, Langdon, 60. Clark, Representative, of New York, 120. Clay, Ann — see Mrs. Erwin. Clay, George, 17. Clay, Henry, birth of, 15 ; an- cestors of, 15-17 ; " Mill Boy of the Slashes," 18; clerk in a store, 18; chancery clerk, INDEX 437 18-19; favored by Chancel- lor Wythe, 19 ; admitted to bar, 20 ; goes to Kentucky, 20-21 ; warmly received, 22- 23 ; delivers oration, 22 ; land grant litigation, 25 ; J. O. Harrison's recollections of, 26-27 J marries Lucretia Hart, 28 ; purchases " Ash- land," 28-29 ; leaves wife on estate, 30; children, 31-33; grief at death of Mrs. Erwm, 3 1 ; writes anti-slavery letters, 34-35 ; opposes Alien and Sedition Laws, 35-36; elected to legislature, 36-37 ; a Jef- fersonian, 39 ; defends Burr, 38-41 ; discovers villainy of Burr, 41-45 ; takes seat in Senate, 45 ; again in legisla- ture, 46 ; opposes anti-British movement, 47 ; approves em- bargo, 47-48; enrages Mar- shall, 49 ; challenged and fights, 50 ; again in Senate, 51; advocates tariff, 51-52; defends Madison on Florida question, 56-57 ; opposes re- charter of bank, 57-58 ; end of term in Senate, 59 ; Speaker of House, 59 ; leads " war hawks," 60 ; advocates greater army and navy, 60- 61 ; wages war, 63-65 ; re- elected Speaker, 65 ; attacked by Quincy, 66-67 5 General Harrison writes to, 68-70 ; states issues of war, 71-73; appointed to peace commis- sion, 75 ; tilts with Adams, 75-77 J g° es to London, 78 ; home again, 78-80 ; eyes on presidency, 81-82; offered cabinet positions, 82 ; offered English mission, 82 ; again made Speaker, 83 ; con- structive policies of, 83-84 ; favors bank, 85-86; advo- cates internal improvements, 87 ; leaves Jeffersonians, 88- yo ; opposes Monroe, 90-91 ; befriends South Americans, 92-96 ; " Great Commoner," 95-9 ; assails Jackson's course in Florida, 97-101 ; crowds come to hear, 98- 100; thinks Texas part of Louisiana Purchase, 102- 103 ; friend of Greece, 103- 104; "Great Pacificator," 105 ; his dislike of slavery, 106 ; his part in Missouri Compromise, 107- 124; finan- cial misfortunes of, 115, 125 ; counsel for Bank of United States, 125 ; illness of, 126 ; returns to Speaker's chair, 126; presidential candidate, 127 ; internal improvements again, 127-130 ; tilt with Randolph, 1 30-13 1 ; his "American system," 132; demands higher tariff, 131- 135 ; nominated for Presi- dent, 136; not enough votes, 137; welcomes Lafayette, I 37~ 1 3$'> supports Adams, 1 38- 14 1 ; bargain story started, 141-143 ; leaps at Kremer, 142-143 ; Secretary of State, 143 ; vain retorts, 143-144, 158; retires from speakership, 145 ; praised as Speaker, 145-146; unhappy years, 147 ; comes to value Adams, 148 ; his loyalty to Adams, 149 ; praised by Adams, 150 ; plans Pan- American Congress, 150- 153 ; attacked by Randolph, 153—1 55 ; his duel with Randolph, 156- 157 ; foreign policy of, 157-158; ill health of, 159-161 ; personal side of, 161-163; loses Kentucky, 163; Adams speaks h of, 165; 438 INDEX beloved in Washington, 167 ; leaves Washington, 168 ; of- fered place on Supreme Bench, 169; condemns mili- tary heroes, 169-170 ; his journey home, 170-17 1 ; speaks of roads, 171; farm- ing at "Ashland," 172; leader of new party, 173 ; denounces spoils system, 174- 176; goes South, 177-178; speaks in Ohio, 179 ; returns to tariff, 179-182; denounces nullification, 182-185 ; for President in 1832, 186, 187 ; great orator, 186 ; visits New Orleans, 187 ; again in Sen- ate, 189; courage of, 189; nominated for President, 189- 192; defends tariff in Senate, 192-197 ; passage with Cal- houn, 194-195 ; leads fight against Van Buren, 198-199; opposes Jackson in bank bill veto, 200 ; his land policy, 201-202 ; on free-masonry, 203 ; defeated by Jackson, 203-204 ; proposes compro- mise tariff, 208 ; confers with Calhoun, 209 ; with manufac- turers, 209 ; his plan of ac- commodation, 209-212; fear of a war with Jackson in com- mand, 212-213; disclaims ambition, 213-214; congratu- lated by Madison, 214-215 ; his land bill, 218; despairs, 218-219; trip to East, 220 ; attacks Jackson for removing deposits, 221-227 ; names Whig party, 229 ; prevents rupture with France, 230 ; rival leaders in 1836, 234; despondency of, 235-237, 243 ; resists expungers, 237- 242 ; support of surplus dis- tribution scheme, 244-245 ; again recommends bank, 248 ; opposes sub-treasury system, 248-251 ; on Jackson's van- ity, 251-253; arraigns Cal- houn, 253-260 ; Calhoun's opinion of, 253, 257 ; re- minds Calhoun of support of Adams, 259 ; assailed by Calhoun, 259-260 ; tour of Eastern states, 262 ; Weed's plan to defeat, 263-267 ; meets Weed at Saratoga, 264 ; chagrin of friends, 268 ; endorses ticket, 268-269 ; speech at Nashville, 269- 271 ; joy of victory, 272- 273 ; speaks again on land bill, 273-274 ; asked to be Secretary of State, 274; set aside by Harrison, 274-275 ; Tyler's devotion to, 276-277 ; takes command, 277-278 ; Tyler vetoes his bank bill, 278-279 ; " corporal's guard," 279-280 ; reads Tyler out of party, 280-281 ; Tyler calls, a " doomed man," 281 ; in- tention to retire, 282 ; says tariff of 1833 is too low, 283 ; his farewell address, 284- 287 ; shakes hands with Cal- houn, 286; his slaves, 288; favors colonization, 289, 290, 291 ; asked to aid Garrison, 289 ; opposes abridgment of right of petition, 292 ; resolu- tions on slavery, 293-294 ; addresses the Abolitionists, 295-297 ; Calhoun commends speech of, 298 ; " rather be right than President," 299 ; letter on abolition to Jacob Gibson, 299 ; for President in 1844, 301 ; triumphant re- turn to Kentucky, 302 ; " a flash in the pan," 303 ; meets Friend Mendenhall, 303- 305 ; supports Giddings, 306 ; on Texas, 306-307 ; tour of INDEX 439 South, 309 ; writes Raleigh letter, 309 ; nominated for President, 310 ; picturesque campaign, 311-313; Jackson slanders, 315; writes "Ala- bama Letters," 315-317; de- feated by Polk, 318; his friends charge fraud, 319 ; sorrow of friends, 319-321 ; his own disappointment, 321- 322 ; debts of, paid, 323-324 ; denounces Mexican War, 326, 328-330; goes to New Orleans, 326; speaks for Ire- land, 326-327 ; son killed, 327 ; at Cape May, 327 ; in- vited to many cities, 327- 328; speaks to Colonization Society, 332-333 ; appears in Supreme Court, 333 ; at Adams's bedside, 333 ; in Philadelphia and New York, 334; urged for President in 1848, 334-335; his false friends, 336-337 ; gives up letter-writing, 335 ; on work of Philadelphia convention, 337 ; refuses to support Tay- lor 337-338 ; withholds let- ter damaging to Taylor, 338 ; asked to lead third party, 339 ; goes South again, 339 ; reelected to Senate, 339 ; plan for colonization in Ken- tucky, 340-341 ; slavery the one theme at Washington, 343-344 ; whom he met there, 345 ; his compromise resolutions, 346-348; repri- mands Jefferson Davis, 349 ; growing feebleness of, 350 ; denounces secession, 351— 353; addresses Foote, 353— 354 ; what he thought of slavery in 1850, 354; at head of Compromise Com- mittee, 356-357 ; on "bleed- ing wounds," 358 ; tilt with Benton, 359 ; activity of, 359 ; denounces Abolitionists, 360 ; denounces Davis and Rhett, 361 ; eloquent appeals for Union, 362-366 ; speeches applauded, 364 ; goes to New- port, 366; friendly with Webster, 369 ; his cough, 371 ; goes to Cuba, 371 ; re- turns to Washington, 375 ; meets Kossuth, 375 ; con- tinued illness of, 376; death of » 37S-379; funeral in Washington, 379-381 ; prog- ress home, 381-382; inter- ment, 384 ; tomb of, 384- 385 ; his devotion to the Union, 386; oratorical powers, 3^7-39° '■> opposed to trick- ery* 39 I ~39 2 ; Mr. Harrison on, '392-398; his voice, 399- 400; fascinations of, 401- 403 ; friends of, 403-404 ; enemies of, 405 ; women ad- mired, 405-409; his slaves, 411-412; religious views of, 412-417 ; financial reverses of, 417-418; careful business methods, 418-419 ; anecdotes of, 420-426 ; as a presidential candidate, 427-429. Clay, Mrs. Henry, marriage of, 28 ; character of, 28 ; her home, 29-30 ; manages farm, 30; children of, 31-33 ; self- restraint of, 50-5 1 ; a relation of Benton, 136, 156; illness of, 161 ; Mrs. Smith's friend- ship for, 161-162; a beloved figure in Washington, 167— 168; returns to "Ashland," 172; jewels for, 321 ; solaces Clay in defeat, 321 ; Clay misses, 350; death of, 384; Mrs. Maury's visit to, 408. Clay, Henry, Jr., 7, 33, 327. Clay, James B., rebuilds " Ash- land," 7 ; Minister to Portu- 440 INDEX gal, 32; father writes to, 371, 376. Clay, Rev. John, Henry Clay's father, 15, 16, 17, 18. Clay, Mrs. John, Henry Clay's mother, marriage of, 16; widow, 18 ; marries Henry Watkins, 18; removes to Kentucky, 20; death of, 21. Clay, John, Henry Clay's brother, 17, 20. Clay, John Morrison, Henry Clay's son, 33. Clay, Porter, Henry Clay's brother, 17, 20. Clay, Susan Hart — see Mrs. Duralde. Clay, Theodore Wythe, 32. Clay, Thomas Hart, son of Henry Clay, 32, 367 ; father telegraphs for, 377 ; returns with body, 379; financial re- verses of, 419. Clay, Mrs. Thomas H., Clay's daughter-in-law, 376, 413. Claye, John, 15-16. Clayton, John M., 208, 268, 336. Clinton, DeWitt, 65. Cobb, Howell, 119. Coles, Colonel, 44. Colton, Calvin, 144-145, 158. Columbia}? Observer, Kremer's letter in, 142. Combs, General, Clay writes to, 265-266, 342. Compromise of 1833, how it was arranged, 179-214, 253; Calhoun not grateful for, 259 ; rates of too low, 283. Compromise of 1 850, how it was effected, 345-367 ; re- sults of, 368-369 ; people asked to support, 369-370. Corcoran and Riggs, 418. Corwin, Thomas, of Ohio, 345. Crawford, William H., candi- date for President, 136; par- alyzed, 138; defeated, 143; Clay writes to, 148. Crittenden, John J., his opinion of Clay, 81 ; removed by Jackson, 188; withdraws in favor of Clay, 188 ; told that Clay would vote for Adams, 252 ; in Harrison's cabinet, 284 ; takes Clay's place in Senate, 284; takes oath of office, 286 ; on Clay's fare- well speech, 286; opposes Clay's nomination, 331, 336 ; reunion with Clay, 336 ; eulogy of Clay, 378. Cuba, Clay goes to, 37. Cumberland Road, 87, 128, 129, 371,404- Czar of Russia, interposes for peace, 74. Dallas, George M., Secretary of Treasury, 86 ; nominated for Vice-President, 311 ; de- ceives Pennsylvania, 314. Daviess, Joseph Hamilton, 25, 38-39, 42. Davis, Jefferson, 345, 348, 349, 361. Deacon, Peter, 17. Dearborn, General, 190, 424. Delaware and Chesapeake Ca- nal, 128. Denny, Richard, 18. Dickens, Charles, on Clay, 403. District of Columbia, slavery in, 292, 293, 294 ; Clay sup- ports slaveholding in, 295, 347 ; favors abolition of slave- trade in, 347 ; law to abolish it in, proposed, 357 ; passed, 367- " Doughfaces," 114. Douglas, Stephen A., 325. Dowling, John, 43-44. Duane, William J., 222. Duel, Clay's with H. Marshall, 50; Clay's opinion of, 142- INDEX 441 143; Clay's with Randolph, I 5 6 ~ I 57r Dupuy, Aaron, 288, 396. Dupuy, Charles, 288, 289. Duralde, Martin, 31. Duralde, Mrs. Martin, Susan Hart Clay, marries, 31; death of, 160; family of, 177, Eaton, Senator, of Tennes- see, resolution of, 116, 118, 119. Edgefield letter, of Calhoun, 2 53, 255. England — -see Great Britain. Erie Canal, Clay favors, 87. Erwin, Mrs. James, Ann Clay, 31, 236, 414. Etting, Solomon, correspond- ence with Clay, 415-416. Eustis, William, representative from Massachusetts, 118, 119. Evans, George, Senator from Maine, 400. Everett, Edward, 193. Federal party, end of, 36 ; attitude of, on Florida, 55, 56; on War of 18 12, 60; nearly obliterated, 83; op- poses tariff of 1816, 86. Fillmore, Millard, sorry for Clay's defeat, 319; becomes President, 339, 360 ; appoints Webster Secretary of State, 345 ; Clay friendly with, 369 ; on Shadrach case, 370; Clay favors him in 1852, 377. Fish, Hamilton, 420. Florida, Madison's proclama- tion, 53; boundaries of, 53; Jackson's invasion of, 97, 199 ; purchase of, 101-102; slavery in, 294-295. Floyd, John, 205. Foote, Henry S., 345, 348; Clay addresses, 353-354; renews his motion, 356. « Force Bill " against South Carolina, 207-208, 213, 214. Forney, John W., 423. Forrest, Edwin, 423. Fox, Charles James, 324, 402. France, issues decrees, 48-49 ; Louisiana purchased from, 53-54; her injustices to United States, 60, 64, 65 ; ports of closed, 72; rupture with in 1 83 1, 230-231. Franklin, Benjamin, 35. Frelinghuysen, Theodore, for Vice-President, 310. Friends, through Mendenhall, question Clay, 303-305. Fugitive Slave Law, Clay ad- vocates a stronger, 347 ; plan for, 356; passed, 366; as- perities of, 370; Clay urges respect for, 374 ; Clay re- grets severities of, 375. Gallatin, Albert, 67 ; his opinion of Clay, 70 ; commis- sioner of peace, 74 ; pacifies, 75» 77; declines place on Panama mission, 152; Clay attacks, 195. Garrard, Governor, 35. Garrison, W. L., in prison, 289. Ghent, Treaty of, 74-78. Gibson, Jacob, Clay writes to, 299. Giddings, J. R., resigns seat, 306; questions Clay, 316- 3 ! 7- Glascock, General, 402. Gottenburg, suggested place of meeting, 74. Gratz, Benjamin, 158, 416. Great Britain, embargoes against, 47-49 ; Florida ceded to, 53; wrongs of, suffered, 60-62 ; war declared on, 64 ; impresses seamen, 65, 7 1— 73 ; American rage against, 66- 67 ; destroys American ship- 142 INDEX P in g» 7* > does not desire mediation, 74 ; willing to discuss terms, 74 ; her de- mands, 76-77 ; peace with, concluded, 78. Great Lakes, right to keep war vessels on, 76. Greeks, Clay friend of, 103-104. Greeley, Horace, meets Clay, 375 » opinion of, 402-403. Grundy, Felix, opposes Clay, 37-38 ; " war-hawk," 60 ; Clay on, at Nashville, 270- 271. Male, John P., 345, 370, 3S0. Hall, Doctor, 419. Hamilton, Alexander, 39, 42, 57, 86, 151. Hamilton, General James, 157. Hamlin, Hannibal, 345. Harlan, James, Clay writes to, 346, 35 6 > 37 2 - Harrison, James O., manuscript diary of, 5 ; describes Clay, 26-27, 389-390, 392-398; de- nies stories of Clay's intemper- ance, 412; on business meth- ods of Clay, 418-419. Harrison, William Henry, his letters to Clay during \Var of 1812, 68-70; for President in 1836, 235; in 1 840, 262; his friends in New York, 265 ; strength of, in conven- tion, 267 ; Clay endorses, 269 ; humble beginnings of, emphasized, 269 ; death of, 276; canonized, 31 1 ; Clay's attitude toward, in 1840, 337. Hart, Joel T., makes statue of Clay, 320. Hart, Lucretia — see Mrs. Henry Clay. Hart, Colonel Thomas, settle in Lexington, 27 ; Clay writes to, 41, 45-46 ; religion of, 413- Hartford Convention, 60. Hayne, R. Y., his debates with Webster, 184 ; interrupts Clay, 195, 197 ; retires from Senate, 206. Hemp, Clay advocates tariff on 5 1 - Henderson Company, 27. " Henry, Patrick, Clay hears, 19 ; mentioned, 24 ; his dis- like of slavery, 160; speeches of, 389. Horsey, Outerbridge, 55-56. Houston vs. Bank of New Or- leans, 333. Houston, Sam, 345. Hudson, Elizabeth — see Mrs. John Clay. Hudson, George, 16. Hudson, Mary, 16. Humphreysville, 52. Hungary, sympathy for, 375. Hunter, Robert M., 345, 380. Illinois, admitted to Union, no. Impressment of seamen, 65, 71- 73- Independent treasury system, recommended by Van Buren, 247 ; opposed by Clay, 250. Indians, Clay defends, 99-101, 231-232. Internal Improvements, Clay on, 45, 51, 84, 87 ; he de- fends constitutionality of, 88- 90, 1 27-13 1 ; Adams favors, Ireland, Clay speaks for, 326 ; service remembered, 326, 334- Jackson, Andrew, victory at New Orleans, 78 ; enters politics, 83 ; sweeps away bank, 86; lawless behavior in Florida, 96-9S ; Clay at- tacks, 96-101 ; awakens mil- INDEX 443 itary enthusiasm, 125 ; candi- date for President, 136 ; strong in West and South, 136; tries to win Clay's favor, 138; Clay opposes, 139; resentment of, 141 ; starts bargain story, 14 1- 143 ; defeated by Adams, *43 > rages on his way home, 144 ; rude character of his friends, 149 ; who increase in numbers, 162 ; sweeps Ken- tucky, 163 ; Clay condemns, 163- 165 ; Jefferson's view of, 165 ; Adams's view of, 165 ; elected over Adams, 166; implacable hate for Clay, 173-174 ; sets Clay out of of- fice, 174; introduces spoils system, 1 74- 177 ; views of tariff, 181 ; Clay leader against, 183, 189-19 1 ; his enmity for Calhoun, 199 ; re- wards Van Buren, 199 ; ve- toes bank bill, 199-200 ; his land policy, 201 ; favored in campaign of 1832, 203-204; his threat to hang Calhoun, 203 ; great victory won by, 204 ; his proclamation against South Carolina, 205- 208 ; Clay's fear of a war led by, 212-213; appoints his successor, 218-219; vetoes Clay's land bill, 218-221 ; removes deposits, 221-222 ; Clay's attack on, for this, 223-227 ; censure of, 223- 227 ; Senate rejects his nom- inations, 228 ; nearly pro- duces rupture with France, 229-231 ; spoils system of, 233 ; end of his reign, 237 ; censure expunged, 237-242 ; his specie circular, 246; re fuses to rescind it, 247 ; ar- raigned by Clay for sub- treasury system, 250-251 ; Clay denounces vanity of, 251-253 ; Clay likens to Na- poleon, 251; Clay near his home in 1840, 270; favors Texas, 310; revives bargain story, 315. Jackson, Mrs. Andrew, 166, 424. Jackson, Doctor Francis, 418. Jefferson, Thomas, Kentucky devoted to, 39; and Burr, 41, 44 ; embargo of, 47, 49 ; his efforts to obtain justice from England, 59 ; men- tioned, 67, 88, 166 ; his dis- like of slavery, 106 ; fears for Union at time of Missouri Compromise, 117; his view of Jackson, 165. Jesup, General, 156. Jews, Clay's attitude toward, 415-416. Johnson, Reverdy, 268. Johnson, Richard M., 189. Johnston, J. S., Clay writes to, x 37. '38, 139. 170, 173. iS?- Jones, George W., 380. Kendall, Amos, 163. Kent, Chancellor, 243. Kentucky, early condition of, 20 ; convention to revise constitution of, 34; circuit court system in, 46 ; Clay's plan of colonization for, 340- 341. Kentucky Colonization Society, Clay speaks to, 291. King, William R., 345. Kossuth, Louis, meets Clay, 375- Kremer, George, his attack on Clay, 141-144, 156. Lafayette, Clay welcomes, 137-138 ; dinner to, 424. Land sales, regulation of, 201- 202 ; Clay's plan for vetoed 444 INDEX by Jackson, 218, 221, 233- 234 ; new bill regarding, de- feated, 233-234 ; surplus from, distributed, 244-247 ; Calhoun's plan concerning, 258 ; Clay again advocates his plan for, 272-273, 280 ; his bill defeated, 306. La Plata, Republic of, 94. Latin America — see Spanish America. Lawrence, Abbott, 217. Leigh, B. Watkins, 268. Letcher, Governor, 314, 427. Lexington, state of when Clay arrived in, 22 ; early bar in, 2 3- 2 5- Lexington Emigration Society, 28. Lexington Insurance Company, 37- Liberia, Clay favors sending negroes to, 289, 332, 340, 411. Liberty party in campaign of 1844, 3 l 3> 3 l 1- Lincoln, Abraham, favors colo- nization, 106 ; Chase's rela- tions with, 149 ; fame of, 369 ; spirit of Clay seen in, 386 ; as an orator, 388-389. Lind, Jenny, Clay hears, 369. Livingston, Peter R., 190. Louis Napoleon, 375. Louisiana, purchase of, 53, 54; prohibition of slaveholding in north of territory of, 112, 121 ; was Texas a part of, 307- Lowndes, William, 60, 1 19, 183. Lundy, Benjamin, 106. Madison, James, 24 ; Florida proclamation, 53-54; Feder- alists attack his policy, 55 ; Clay defends, 55-57 ; his dealings with England, 59 ; messages of, 62, 63 ; recom- mends embargo, 63 ; nomi- nated for reelection, 64 ; re- elected, 65 ; price of second term, 67 ; wishes to make a general of Clay, 70 ; urged to greater activity, 72 ; ready for peace, 74 ; offers Clay cabinet posts, 82; vetoes in- ternal improvement bill, 87- 88 ; his dislike of slavery, 106 ; compliments Clay, 214- 215 ; death of, 236. Maine, admission to Union of, 1 10- 1 1 2, 114. Mammy Lottie, 288. Mangum, W. P., 235, 30 1, 345- " Mansfield,' 1 72. Marcy, William L., 198. Marion, Robert, 182, 196. Marshall, Humphrey, 24 ; ex- treme Federalist, 49 ; his duel with Clay, 50. Marshall, James G.,419. Marshall, Thomas A., 51. Marshall, Thomas F., 390. Marryat, Captain, at " Ash- land," 425. Martineau, Harriet, at " Ash- land," 29. Mason, Senator of Virginia, 345. 348, 349-. Masonry in politics, 203. Massachusetts, restrictions on negroes in, 116. Mathew, Father, 343. Maury, Mrs., visits Clay, 407- 410. McDuffie, George, 208. McLane, Louis, 222. Mendenhall, Friend, questions Clay, 303-305. Mexico, a republic, 307 ; war with Texan " patriots," 307 ; claims of, upon Texas, 309 ; war with threatened. 317, 325 ; at mercy of United States, 328 ; Democrats wish INDEX 445 to annex, 328 ; empire ac- quired from, 343. Milan Decree, 49. Miller, Stephen F., Clay's let- ters to, 315-317. Milton, 375. Mississippi, right to navigate, 76; improvement of, 128. Missouri Compromise, 105 ; Clay's part in, 107 ; who originated it, 108- 109 ; prog- ress and arrangement of, 109- 124; Clay on slaveholder's side in, 288 ; a solemn pact, 294 ; Douglas supports, 325 ; Clay's reference to it in 1850, 349- Monroe, James, mentioned, 24, 67, 82 ; opposes internal im- provements, 88, 127 ; Clay's criticism of, 90-91 ; his atti- tude toward South America, 96 ; Florida proclamation, 103 ; reelected. 121 ; last of the Virginians, 125 ; his Flor- ida treaty, 307. Monroe Doctrine, 96. Moore, James F., 50. Morrison, James, his will, 417. Napoleon, decrees of, 48-49 ; sells Louisiana, 53 ; Federal- ist abuse of, 61 ; wars of, 71 ; roads of, 89 ; Jackson likened to, 251. Nashville Convention, 342 ; meets and dissolves, 360 ; echoes of, 370. National Intelligencer, Clay's letter to, 142. Negroes, plans concerning, in Missouri, 109 ; restrictions on, in Northern states, 116; Clay's, 289 ; Clay favors colonization of, 289, 290, 291, 325 ; colonization of, in Ken- tucky, 340-342 ; running from man-hunters, 370. New England, attitude of, in War of 181 2, 60, 66, 67, 71, 74; Adams represents tradi- tions of, 75 ; disaffection in, 76-77 ; opposed to protective tariff, 135; changes its views on, 180. New Hampshire, restrictions on negroes in, 116. New Mexico, constitution for 343 ; Clay favors freedom in 349 ; in Omnibus Bill, 356 Taylor's policies as to, 358 slave-breeding ground, 361 territorial government for, 366. New York, restrictions on ne- groes in, 116. Nicholas, George, 23-24, 35. Niles, H., Clay to, concerning Jackson, 168-169; concern- ing Garrison, 289. Northumberland, Duke of, 58. Nullification, South Carolina announces doctrine of, 181- 183 ; Clay denounces, 182- 185, 196 ; Jackson against, 205-206; Madison on, 215; Calhoun's unshaken faith in, 216; nature of doctrine of, 365- Omnibus Bill, 356 ; defeated, 363, 366. O'Neill, Peggy, 166. Oregon question, 3 1 1, 326. Oregon River, 273. Palmerston, Lord, 401. Pan-American Congress, 150- 153 ; Randolph attacks, 153— 154. Penn, William, 35. Pennsylvania, slavery abolished in, 35 ; battle-ground in 1844, 3i3-3 x 5- Perry, Commodore, 1 26- 1 27. Pet Banks, 222. 446 INDEX Petitions Abolition, received in Congress, 291 ; Clay presents, 292; right to present ought not to be abridged, 295 ; Adams defends it, 306. Pickens, Andrew, 182, 196. Pickering, Timothy, 54. Pinckneys of South Carolina, 183. Findell, Richard, 42-44, 340. Pitkin, Timothy, opposes War of 181 2, 64; defeated for Speaker, 65. Pitt, William, 324. Poinsett, Joel R., Minister to Mexico, 152, 307. Polk, James K., nominated for President, 311 ; an unknown quantity, 314; elected Presi- dent, 318; brings on Mexican War, 325 ; Clay dines with, 333- Poore, Ben Perley, on Clay's voice, 399. Porter, Peter B., 62, 63. Preston, William C, on Clay's farewell, 286; Clay consults, regarding slavery, 295 ; calls Clay's defeat a public calam- ity. 3*9- Price, Mrs., 50. Protective Tariff — see Tariff and American System. Quincy, Josiah, opposes War of 18 1 2, 64, 65 ; his opinion of Clay, 66-67, 73. " Raleigh Letter," 309. Randolph, John, 24, 73; op- poses War of 181 2, 64, 65, 67-68 ; proposes to withdraw from Union, 1 13; invents name of "doughface," 114; speaks on Missouri Compro- mise, 118; his opposition to the Compromise, 121 ; his reply to Clay on internal im- provements, 1 30-1 3 1 ; his foul attack on Clay, 153- 155 ; duel with Clay, 156— *57- Rhett, R. B., Clay denounces, 361, 370. Rhode Island, restrictions on negroes in, 1 16. Rio Perdido, 53, 54. Rives, Senator, defends Tyler, 279, 39°- Robertson, Chief-Justice, 383. Russell, Jonathan, peace com- missioner, 75 ; his opinion of J. Q. Adams, 77-78. Rutledges of South Carolina, 183. Schurz, Caul, his opinion of Clay, 90 ; theory about sup- pression of Clay's speeches, 107 ; praises Clay's tariff" speeches, 135, 193; accuses Clay of seeking presidency, 234 ; on Clay's oratory, 401. Scott, Winfield, sentiment fa- vorable to in New York, 265 ; views of, expressed to Clay, 266-267 ; strength of name in convention, 267 ; in Mex- ico City, 328 ; votes for in Philadelphia convention, 336 ; Clay opposes nomina- tion of in 1852, 377. Secession, spoken of as a com- mon right, 109 ; nullification near kin to, 185 ; Clay's op- position to, 351-353* 373-. Seminole Indians, Jackson chas- tises, 96-97 ; Clay defends, 99- Sergeant, John, on Missouri Compromise, 119; envoy to Pan-American Congress, 152 ; nominated for Vice-President, 191. Seward, William H., Weed's support of, 264 ; in Senate. INDEX 447 345 ; " higher law " speech, 356 ; eulogy on Clay, 380. Shadrach case, 370. Shelby, Isaac, 24. Shepherd, Moses, erects monu- ment to Clay, 404. Sherrerd, Representative, 333. Shunk, Governor, 314. Sieyes, 324. Slavery, Clay writes against, 34-35 ; his dislike of, 106, 288; in Missouri, 108-124; he asks for remedy for, 290- 291 ; unconstitutional to in- terfere with, 291, 299; in District of Columbia, 292 ; Clay's resolutions regarding, 293-294 ; he discusses, in Senate, 295-297 ; must con- tinue, 300 ; Clay's opinion of, expressed to Mendenhall, 303-305 ; his remedy for, 325 ; discussion of, in Ken- tucky, 339-340 ; bitterness over, 341-342; injected into everything, 344, 346 ; Clay's opinion of, in 1850, 354. Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, tells of Clay's sorrows, 31- 32 ; present to hear Clay on Jackson, 98-99 ; her impres- sions of Clay, 160-162 ; tells of Jackson's arrival in Wash- ington, 166-168; her ad- miration of Clay, 406 ; on his domestic relations, 410. Smyth, General, of Virginia, 426. Soule, Senator, of Louisiana, 345. 423. Southard, Judge, 160. South Carolina, declares tariff unconstitutional, 180; issues "Exposition of 1828," 181; Clay defines and denounces position of, 1 8 2- 185, 196- 197 ; large share of offices held by, 184; not pacified, 204 ; votes for Floyd, 205 ; calls a convention, 205 ; Clay's efforts to conciliate, 209-212; to be coerced if she secedes, 373. Spain, holds Florida, 53 ; revo- lution in her American col- onies, 91-96; respect for minister of, 95 ; Florida pur- chased from, 101-102. Spanish Americans, Clay advo- cates independence of, 91- 96; slavery abolished by, 107 ; Clay's efforts for a con- gress of, 1 50- 1 5 2. Specie Circular, 246. Spoils System, Jackson intro- duces, 167, 174, 188; Clay denounces, 174-175, 198, 233 ; corrupts Whig party, 274. Sprague, Peleg, 217. Stephens, A. H., hears Clay speak, 332-333. Stevenson, Andrew, 228. Stevenson, Thomas B., Clay's letters to, on campaign of 1848, 335 ; on Philadelphia convention, 337 ; on Taylor, 338 ; on secession, 373. Story, Justice, his anecdote of Clay, 424. Struthers, John, 384. Sub-treasury system, Van Bu- ren recommends, 247 ; Clay opposes, 249-251; Calhoun favors, 254 ; bill to establish passed, 261 ; Clay moves to repeal, 272 ; Whig plan to repeal, 277-278. Sumner, Charles, oratory of, 391. Sumter, Thomas, 182, 196. Surplus, distribution of, 244- 247. - Swartmout, Mr., 41. Tallmadge, James, 109. 448 INDEX Taney, Roger B., 222, 228. Tappan, Arthur, 289. Tariff', Clay advocates, 51, 84; of 18 1 6, 86, 131 ; increased rates demanded, 13 1— 135 ; called the " American sys- tem," 132; of 1828, 179; of 1 832-1833, 207-215 ; not the real cause of the trouble, 216- 217; compromise rates dis- pleasing to manufacturers, 218; too low, 283-284; of 1842, 306; fraud in Penn- sylvania, 313-314; of 1846, 334- Taylors, of South Carolina, 183. Taylor, John W., leader of free- state men, no; elected Speaker, 115; declares Clay out of order, 123. Taylor, Zachary, H. Clay, Jr., in army of, 327 ; candidate for President, 330 ; no party attachments, 331 ; Clay op- poses, 331 ; nominated for President, 336; elected, 339 ; Clay invited to dine with, 341 ; Clay's influence over, 342; threatens the South, 355-356 ; policies of, opposed by Clay, 356 ; death of, 360 ; relative strength of, and Clay, 372. Tecumseh, 189. Texas, excluded from Florida purchase, 101-103 ; contest over annexation of, 306-330 ; Clay's position on, stated in "Raleigh Letter," 309-310; Democrats demand annex- ation of, 311 ; Senate refuses to annex, 315 ; "Alabama Let- ters " on, 315-317 ; joint reso- lution to annex, 325 ; Clay's opposition to, 328-330 ; fix- ing western bounds of, 347, 356, 366 ; debt of, 347. Thomas, Senator, of Illinois, 112. Thruston, Buckner, 51. Tinsley, Peter, 18. Tinsley, Thomas, 18. Tories, Clay's name for the Jackson men, 229. Transylvania University, Clay trustee of, 417 ; Clay secures money for, 417. Turkey, Greek revolt against, 103-104. Tyler, John, for Vice-President, 268 ; becomes President, 276 ; accounted a friend of Clay, 276-277 ; approves Clay's vote for Adams, 276; a strict constructionist, 276 ; opposes expungers, 276 ; ve- toes bank bill, 278 ; his " cor- poral's guard," 279 ; read out of party, 280-281 ; de- clares Clay a "doomed man," 281 ; a " flash in the pan," 303 ; takes up cause of Texas, 308 ; consorts with Democrats, 308 ; makes Cal- houn Secretary of State, 309 ; renominates himself, 311 ; his treachery to the Whigs, 311 ; finds endorsement in Clay's defeat, 325 ; his joint resolu- tion policy, 325 ; hurries off envoy to Texas, 325. Ullman, Daniel, Clay writes to, on Taylor, 331 ; on Com- promise of 1850, 355 ; on campaign of 1852, 372. Underwood, Joseph R., an- nounces death of Clay, 379; accompanies his body to Lex- ington, 383. Upshur, Secretary of State, es- pouses Texas, 308 ; killed, 308. Utah, in Omnibus Bill, 356, 363 ; Clay's policy as 10,358. Van Arsdale, Doctor, 350. INDEX 449 Van Buren, Martin, nominated Minister to England and re- jected, 197-199 ; creature of Jackson, 199, 240; Clay ad- dresses, on subject of financial distress,- 225-227 ; elected President, 235 ; his legaoy of panic, 246-247 ; recom- mends independent treasury, 247 ; Clay accuses Calhoun of supporting, 258 ; Clay at- tacks, 261 ; Grundy in cab- inet of, 270 ; defeated by Harrison, 27 1 ; declines to buy Texas, 307 ; candidate for President in 1844, 309; agrees to keep silent as to Texas, 309 ; his letter in Globe, 310; set aside by convention, 311. Vermont, restrictions upon ne- groes in, 116. Walker, Senator, of Wis- consin, 364. Watkins, Henry, Henry Clay's stepfather, 18; removes to Kentucky, 20. Watkins, Mrs. Henry — see Mrs. John Clay. Watkins, John, 16. " War Hawks," 60, 67, 173. War of 18 1 2, declaration of, 64 ; Federalists oppose, 65-66 ; Randolph opposes, 66 ; mis- fortunes in, 68-71 ; issues involved in, 71-73. Washington's farewell address, Clay speaks of, 344. Webster, Daniel, 80 ; changes mind on tariff question, 86 ; favors Greece, 103 ; opposes higher tariff, 132-133 ; advo- cates tariff, 180; his debates with Hayne, 183-184; urges Clay to return to Washing- ton, 187 ; denounces Jackson for bank veto, 201 ; replies to Calhoun, 212; cordial rela- tions of, with Clay, 217; op- poses removal of deposits, 222 ; presents petitions, 225 ; candidate for President in 1836, 235 ; resists expungers, 239 ; Calhoun's opinion of, 253 ; his designs on presi- dency in 1840, 262; his friends oppose Clay, 263 ; Secretary of State, 274; aims to reconcile Tyler to bank, 280 ; remains in cabinet, 280 ; criticized by Whigs, 281 ; op- poses purchase of Texas, 308 ; leaves State Department, 308; endorses Clay for President, 310; votes for, in Philadel- phia convention, 336 ; re- turned to Senate, 345 ; March the 7th speech, 355 ; in State Department, 360 ; hears Jenny Lind, 369 ; Clay op- poses his nomination in 1852, 377; oratory of, 391; com- pared with Clay, 427. Webster-Hayne debates, 183- 184, 253. Weed, Thurlow, manoeuvres of, hostile to Clay, 263-267 ; again plans to defeat Clay, 330 ; fears open combat, 405- Wellington, Duke of, 324. Whig party, Clay forming, 83, 173 ; Clay names, 229 ; pol- icies of, after 1840, 277; de- fied by Tyler, 278-279 ; Tyler read out of, 280-281 ; its campaign in 1844, 311 ; its morale broken, 314; knell ° f » 339- White, Andrew D., his valu- ation of Clay, 429. White, Hugh L., candidate for President, 235. Whittier, John G., asks Clay to aid Garrison, 289. 450 INDEX i Wilkinson, General, 44. •< Woolens Bill," 180. Williamses, of South Carolina, Wright, Silas, 422. iw 1 ! 83 " t, • Wythe, George, Chancellor, 18: Wilmot Proviso, 343. urges Clay to study law, 10 • Winthrop, Robert C, praises Clay's respect for, 94. Clay as Speaker, 145-146; other recollections of Clay, " Yuung Republicans," in w^°\a1mi I; S , enate> 55 5 programme of Wirt William, 204. after war, 86; become Woodbury, Levi, 248. Whigs, 173. 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