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 Copy 1 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES OF 
 
 HENRY CLAY. 
 
 
 ADDRESS OF CARLETON HUNT. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow- Citizens: 
 
 The memory of a truly great man lives on in example and 
 instruction. It never dies. Nearly forty years have passed 
 away since I followed the grand marshal as one of his aids, 
 on the occasion of the finest pageant New Orleans has wit- 
 nessed, when the colossal statue of Henry Clay by Joel T. 
 Hart, about to be erected on the spot where I am now stand- 
 ing, on the mound raised m the middle of Lafayette Square, 
 was unveiled on Canal street, at the intersection of that thor- 
 oughfare with St. Charles and Royal streets. Since that time 
 a mighty Revolution has swept over the country. Slavery 
 has been abolished. State after State has been added to the 
 Union. The flag of the Republic has been carried in triumph 
 on land and sea through a foreign war, and has been planted 
 in the most distant parts of the earth. A generation has 
 come and gone, and my dear kinsman and preceptor in the 
 law*, who pronounced the oration, has after a distinguished 
 professional career at the bar, of varied and difficult employ- 
 ments, and after tilling high office at home and abroad, 
 been gathered to his honored fathers. The memory of Henry 
 Clay not only survives, but is as green and fresh as it was 
 at the time to which I have referred. His name has very 
 recently been chosen for undying honors by a body composed 
 of Governors of States, Supreme Court Judges, Presidents of 
 Universities and of Colleges, Publicists, Professors of History 
 and Science, Authors and Editors, as one of the first twenty 
 
 ♦William Uenry Hunt. Judge U. S. Court of Claims, Secretary of the 
 Navy in the cabinet of President Gartield, and Envoy Extraordinary 
 and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia. 
 
nine illustrious native-born Americans to be inscribed in the 
 Temple of Fame, on the heights which overlook the city of 
 New York, itself the proudest monument of the Union of the 
 States. 
 
 The removal of the statue of Mr. Clay to the square which 
 bears the name, consecrated in the alTections ot all true 
 Americans, of Lafayette, has taken place by order of the 
 city authorities of New Orleans, owing to the congested con- 
 dition of Canal street, now virtually abandoned to street 
 cars, and is designed to preserve the monument for all 
 time as it ou^'ht to be, in a preferable locality, facing the 
 City Hall, in the midst of the suitable surroundings att'orded 
 by these grounds, with their walks, trees, plants and 
 beautiful flowers. The present dedication of the corner stone 
 for a new pedestal, has proceeded by direction of a com- 
 mittee of the Common Council, under a resolution of that 
 body pa.ssed to do honor to the memory of the great American 
 statesman. The stone has now been laid in the presence of 
 this concourse of the people, by his Honor the Mayor of 
 New Orleans, assisted by the Most Worshipful Orand Master 
 of the Ancient Masonic order, who has been accompanied to 
 this place by a Past Grand Master and by the Right 
 Worshipful Grand Secretarj-. The part assigned to me in the 
 exercises of the day will, as 1 think, be best discharged by 
 passing in review as rapidly as is consistent with the character 
 of an event in many ways so memorable, the life and services 
 of Mr. Clay. 
 
 Henry Clay was born in Hanover county, Virginia, April 
 12, 1777. His father, John Clay, a Baptist clergynian, was 
 a person of considerable talents and of high respectability, 
 remarkable for his tine voice and delivery. Henry Clay's 
 mother was a woman of exemplary qualities and of patriotic 
 spirit. He went to school in a neighborhood known as " the 
 Slashes," near Richmond, in a log house, where Peter Deacon 
 was master. In after years, when he was a candidate to be 
 President, and enjoyed a degree of popularity which is almost 
 indescribable, his picture was constantly to be seen as " the 
 mill boy of the Slashes,^' riding the family horse, with nothing 
 but a grain sack for a saddle, on his errands to and from the 
 neighboring mill. From having gone to the then distant State 
 
of Kentucky to live, he acquired from his fond and enthusiastic 
 followers the name of ^^ Harry of the West,^^ which was car- 
 ried with acclamations, as no other has been before or since, 
 far and wide throughout the valley of the Mississippi. Mrs. 
 Clay having, upon her husband's death, married Captain 
 Henry Watkins, Henry Clay was at fourteen made "boy 
 behind the counter" in the retail store at Richmond of 
 Richard Denny, but Captain Watkins haviug found the way 
 through Colonel Tinsley, a member of the House of Bur- 
 gesses of the State of Virginia, to a place for Clay in the 
 clerk's office of the High Court of Chancery, he was selected 
 by George Wythe to be his amanuensis. 
 
 Contact with the men of the Revolution was of inestimable 
 advantage to those of the next generation. Love of Civil 
 Liberty ; the necessity for united effort in order to secure it; 
 knowledge of the principles of free government ; the sacri- 
 fices made to achieve it ; the exalted leadership under which 
 the great cause proceeded, and the homage accorded to service 
 on the patriot side, all contributed to develop for the men of 
 the period a national character of extraordinary strength and 
 purity, and served also to communicate- inspiration to the 
 young whose privilege it was to grow up under its influence. 
 The benefit which a nature so devoted as that of Clay must 
 have derived from association with Chancellor Wythe, can 
 with difficulty be measured. Educated at the venerable college 
 of William and Mary, Wythe rose to be Professor of Law there 
 himself. Among the students in his office he had taught 
 Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. He had aided Jeffer- 
 son in revising the laws of Virginia, he had drawn the remon- 
 strance against the Stamp Act to the British Parliament, and 
 had secured for himself the imperishable honor of being one 
 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was a 
 member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of 
 the United States, and a warmest advocate of it in the State 
 of Virginia. Coming into the Profession of the law under 
 this illustrious teacher, Mr. Clay formed the acquaintance 
 of Spencer Roane, of John Marshall and of Bushrod Wash-, 
 ington, and heard Patrick Henry speak. Through Chancellor 
 Wythe, Mr. Clay was admitted to the office of Attorney 
 General Brooke, and one year later 1797 removed from 
 
Kiehmond and established himself iu Lexinfrton, Keutueky, 
 whei'e there was already a peuerous aud most interesting so- 
 ciety, which opened its arms to receive him, and cherished 
 him with unswerving fidelity throughout the varying scenes 
 of his bng public career. Beginning the practice of Law in 
 Kentucky, he took position at once in the front rank at the 
 Bar. 
 
 In common with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mar- 
 shall, Mercer, and a number more of the first statesmen ot 
 the South, Mr. Clay thought slavery not only an evil, but 
 a deep stain upon the character of our country, and ardently 
 hoped for its extinction. lie considered that an attempt to 
 carry it where nature had pronounced its doom, was against 
 good conscience, and he was an active friend to emancipation. 
 January 29, 1850, in the debate which arose in the Senate when 
 he presented a series of Resolutions which afterwards assumed 
 the form of the Compromise measures of that year, he said 
 in the course of the colloquy which took place between Jeffer- 
 son Davis and himself, the former having challenged him to 
 immediate discussion: " 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 subject, to say that no earthly power could induce me to 
 '* vote for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery 
 " where it had not before existed, either south or north of 
 " that line. Coming as I do from a slave State, it is my sol- 
 " emn. deliberate and well matured determination that no 
 ' power, no earthly power, shall compel me to vote for the 
 " positive introduction of slavery either south or north of 
 " that line." 
 
 Immediately on settling in Lexington, he entered actively 
 into the canvass to elect an anti-slavery State Constitutional 
 Convention. Whenever a slave brought suit for freedom 
 Clay would volunteer his professional services. He got to be 
 considered not only as the friend of the slave but also as the 
 supporter of the cause of liberty itself. He began his politi- 
 cal life as a Republican, and joined the National Republican 
 .Party, when it trained under the victorious banner of Jeffer- 
 son. His spirit caught fire in the concussions of the time, 
 and led him into active opposition to the alien and sedition 
 laws. Having become partially unpopular from his anti 
 
slavery course, his strength before the people seems to have 
 been readily recovered in this way. 
 
 The alien law approved June 25, 1798, authorized the 
 President at any time during its continuance to order all 
 such aliens as he deemed dangerous, or had reasonable 
 grounds to suspect of treasonable or secret machinations, to 
 depart from the United States, subject, however, to the dis- 
 cretion of the President to license the remaining in the 
 country of those aliens he deemed harmless. The law was 
 to last two years. The second alien Act approved July 6, 
 1798, authorized the President on the breaking out of war, to 
 enforce the apprehension, restraint and removal of any alien 
 enemies. The Courts were empowered to enforce such re- 
 moval, or to exact security for good conduct. 
 
 The sedition Act of July 14, 1798, was entitled "An Act 
 in addition to the act, entitled ' An Act for the punish- 
 ment of certain crimes against the United States,' " 
 and provided for the punishment by fine and impris- 
 onment of any persons combining or conspiring to op- 
 pose measures of the government, or to impede any law of 
 the United States, or to intimidate any person engaged in 
 doing duty as an officer of the United States. Section 2 pro- 
 vided, that if any one should print or publish, or utter, or 
 aid in writing or publishing false and malicious writings 
 against the United States, or either house, or the President, 
 to bring them into contempt, or to excite against them the 
 hatred of the people, or to stir up sedition, he should be fined 
 and imprisoned not exceeding two years. 
 
 The ardor and effect with which Mr. Clay attacked these laws 
 in public speeches were such, that he and George Nicholas, 
 who was embarked with him in the canvass, were drawn by the 
 people through the streets of a town in Fayette county in a 
 carriage, and were triumphantly elected to the Legislature of 
 Kentucky. This was A. D. 1803. In the Legislature he met 
 the following year in debate with Felix Grundy, and defeated 
 the effort of the latter for the repeal of the law of incorpora- 
 tion of an insurance company. Somewhat later in point of 
 time, A. D. 1806, we find Mr. Clay appearing as counsel for 
 Aaron Burr, but having become a senator in Congress, and 
 having seen the correspondence of Burr with Swartout, he 
 
C) 
 
 became convinced tliat the people of Kentucky had been 
 deceived by Burr, and he declined to have further relations, 
 of anv kind, with him. The election of Clav to the Senate 
 of the United States, above referred to, was for a fraction of a 
 term, to succeed John Adair, but limited as his time was, Mr. 
 Clay, in his very first effort, and in an evenly divided Senate 
 in the matter of the Potomac River Bridge, proved himself 
 able to carry a majority with him, and to set on foot 
 the doctrine of Internal Improvements, which some of the 
 first Kepublicau statesmen of the period were so curiously 
 slow to conceive. 
 
 On the expiration of his term in the Senate, he was elected 
 A. D. 1807 to the Legislature ot Kentucky from the county 
 of Fayette, and made Speaker of the House. He rendered 
 in his legislative place of this time the ever memorable service 
 in the history of the commonwealth, of saving to its civiliza- 
 tion and civil liberties the precious jurisprudence of the 
 Common Law. He insisted that the authorities of the period, 
 before the division of the British Empire, were not foreign, 
 but in point of fact belonged to ditferent parts of the same 
 country. A bill having been presented to prohibit the read- 
 ing in court in the State of Kentucky of any British decision 
 or elementary work of law, he offered and succeeded in secur- 
 ing the adoption, in spite of the prevailing resentment which 
 the arbitrary course of England toward the United States had 
 aroused in every true American breast, of an amendment to 
 limit the exclusion in question to those works and judicial 
 opinions which had appeared sincfi July 4, 1776. There is an 
 account of this famous effort by George D. Prentice. In order 
 to make it, Mr. Clay used not only his abilities as a lawyer, 
 but all his splendid powers as a master of persuasive speech. 
 His hearers were held spell-bound. They gazed on the orator 
 and listened to his moving eloquence until, as Prentice 
 declares, they lost the sense of individual existence. 
 
 In the course of the legislative session of 1808, Mr. Clay 
 introduced into the House a resolution for the encouragement 
 of the industries of the country, and which required that the 
 members of the Legislature should dress in clothing of do- 
 mestic manufacture; and next year, 1809, made a report in a 
 contested election case of the first importance. Helm, Hay- 
 
croft and Thomas bein^ candidates for the Legislature, Helm 
 received 436 votes, Haycroft 350, and Thomas 271. Hardin 
 County being entitled to two representatives, and Helm being 
 one, the report denied a seat to Haycroft because by reason 
 of his being a judge, under Section 26, Article 2, of the Con- 
 stitution of Kentucky he was ineligible. At the same time 
 Thomas had a seat declined him also. This was in opposi- 
 tion to the doctrine of the celebrated Wilkes casein England, 
 which gave to Wilkes' opponent the seat in contest, although 
 the latter had received a minority vote only. Mr. Clay's 
 report rejected the claim of Thomas on the ground that the 
 votes given Haycroft, although void in creating a right on his 
 part, could not affect the situation of his competitor. The 
 doctrine held by Clay was that disqiialiflcaiion cannot produce 
 qualification, and that to give the seat in contest to a minority 
 candidate would he subversive of the great principle of free gov- 
 ernment, that the majority shall prevail. The investigation in 
 Thomas vs. Haycroft was made by Mr. Clay, and the report 
 remains in the legible characters of symmetrical fineness for 
 which his handwriting is marked. Its doctrines have ever 
 since governed the Kentucky elections, and have decidedly 
 the weight of greater authority in the United States over 
 the English rule, and as I submit, fellow citizens, upon reason, 
 as well as authority, we are entitled to add, that the American 
 rule is by far the more creditable of the two to a free country. 
 On the resignation of Senator Thurston in 1807, Mr. Clay 
 was chosen Senator of the United States for an unexpired 
 term, and took his seat the winter of 1809-10, making his first 
 address in favor of the encouragement of domestic manufac- 
 tures — a policy as we have seen, he had previously supported 
 in the Legislature of the State of Kentucky. There was now 
 prospect of war with England, and he argued for a system 
 of manufacturing as essential to American independence. In the 
 year 1810 he supported the claim of the United States to the 
 Florida Parishes of Baton Rouge and the Felicianas. Presi- 
 dent Madison having issued his proclamation declaring West 
 Florida, annexed to the territory of Orleans, Mr. Clays' con- 
 tention was, first, that the disputed territory was ours by legal 
 transfer, as part of the Louisiana purchase of 1803. Sec- 
 ondly supposing that it was not, that circumstances made it 
 
8 
 
 inevitable that the United States should hold it. The free 
 navifjation of the Mississippi required we should be in pos- 
 session, upon the eternal principle of self-preservation — a prin- 
 ciple that knows no limitation of time or place and which gave the 
 United States a right to extend itslairs, over the disputed territory. 
 It was impossible that the commerce of the whole valley 
 should be held at the mercy of Spain. 
 
 In the summer of 1811, having returned to Kentucky, Mr. 
 Clay was elected a member of the House of Representatives 
 of the United States, and on his first appearance in the House 
 was made Speaker — the only instance on record of like ad- 
 vancement in Congress in the history of our country. " His 
 first step" (said John Randolph, of Roanoke) "was from the 
 door of the House to the Speaker's chair." Some forty years 
 afterward, Randolph, borne on a litter, was carried into the 
 Senate Chamber, a dying man. Clay was speaking. The 
 two met for the last time, after scenes the most trying that 
 can be pictured, in theirpersonal intercourse. "Lift me up! " 
 " Lift me up ! " (cried Randolph) •' I want to hear that voice 
 once more ! " The episode took place during the famous debate 
 on the compromise tariff bill of 1833. As soon as Clay con- 
 cluded his remarks, he left his place to extend his hand to his 
 former enemy. 
 
 Chosen Speaker of the House in 1811, Clay continued to 
 fill the office until he was appointed one of the plenipoten- 
 tiaries to negotiate the treaty of peace with Great Britain. 
 On his return from Europe he was immediately re-elected 
 to the House and to be Speaker, and retained the place 
 (except during his temporary withdrawal from Washington) 
 down to March 3, 1825, when he became Secretary of State. 
 He proved to be the most eminent Speaker the Congressional 
 history of the United States has ever produced. He filled 
 the chair with lasting honor to himself. His love of order— 
 the sincerity of his nature— the quickness of his percep- 
 tions and his strong common sense— the impartiality and cor- 
 rectness, and the rapidity of his judgments— the respect he 
 was always prepared to show the rights of others— the mingled 
 dignity and courtesy and^the fearlessness of his address— a 
 voice so melodious, that it has remained to this day unsur- 
 passed and probably unequaled by any that has been heard in 
 
the capitol at Washington, and an established reputation for 
 perfect knowledge of the difficult duties of his office, are some 
 of the elements which occur to me, of his success in this great 
 place. No decision of his was ever overruled, and while 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives he was also leader of 
 it in debate. The testimony of Horace Greeley is that he was 
 confessedly the best presiding officer any deliberative body in 
 America has ever known, and that none was ever more se- 
 verely tried. 
 
 In 1804 Great Britain declared the French coast from 
 Ostend to the Seine to be in a state of blockade, and in 1806 
 the blockade was extended from the Elbe to Brest, becoming 
 necessarily, in part, a mere paper blockade. Napoleon 
 answered November 21, 1806, by the Berlin Decree estab- 
 lishing the Continental System and designed to put a stop 
 to trade between Great Britain and the European conti- 
 nent. Thereupon the British Orders in Council, of Janu- 
 ary 7 and November 11, 1807, were issued declaring the 
 blockade of all places and ports belonging to France and her 
 allies from which the British flag was excluded, and prohibit- 
 ing commerce with those countries and their colonies, and 
 subjecting to capture and condemnation all vessels trading 
 with or from these, and all merchandise on board such 
 vessels. Napoleon retaliated by means of his Milan Decree 
 of December 17, 1807, declaring that every ship of whatever 
 nation, and whatever the value of its cargo, sailing from 
 the ports of England or her colonies, or of countries occu- 
 pied by the English troops, and every ship which had made 
 any voyage to England, or paid any tax to that government, 
 or submitted to search by an English ship, should be lawful 
 prize. These decrees and counter decrees were the instruments 
 by which the commerce of neutrals was destroyed. Great 
 Britain would not resign her maritime commerce to build up a 
 commercial marine sailing under a neutral flag. She would 
 tolerate no trading except it went through her hands, or through 
 British ports, where a transit duty was levied for the treas- 
 ury. Napoleon on his part desired to constrain neutrals, and 
 especially the United States, to become his allies. There 
 must be no neutrals, or at least neutrals must have no 
 rights. 
 
10 
 
 For a time after 1803 nearly the whole carrying; trade 
 of Europe was done by American vessels. The condition 
 of affairs is well delineated in the History of MeMaster. 
 The merchant flag of every belligerent, except Enefland 
 vanished from the ocean. It was under the American Mag 
 that the gum trade was carried on with Senegal, the sugar 
 trade with Cuba, that coffee was exported from Caracas, and 
 hides and Indigo from South America. Great fleets of Amer- 
 ican merchantmen sailed from Vera Cruz, from Carthagena, 
 from La Plata, from the French colonies in the Antilles, 
 from Cayenne, from Dutch Guiana, from the Isles of France 
 and Heunion, from Batavia and Manila to the United States. 
 They filled the warehouses of Cadiz and Antwerp to overflow- 
 ing. They glutted the nuirkets of Embden and Lisbon, Ham- 
 burg and Copenhagen with the products of the West Indies 
 and the fabrics of the East, and bringing back the products 
 of the looms and forges of Germany to the New World, 
 drove out the manufacturers of Yorkshire, Manchester and 
 Birmingham. This was the splendid trade, which Great 
 Britain marked out for annihilation and proceeded to destroy, 
 by paper blockades and by the decisions of her Admiralty 
 Courts. 
 
 British men of war claiming to enforce the doctrine of in- 
 defeasible allegiance stopped American vessels to search them 
 not only on the high .seas but in American waters, and mer- 
 cilessly impressed American sailors into the naval service of 
 Great Britain. It resulted that naturalization by the United 
 States was worthless. In the summer of 1807, the American 
 frigate Chesapeake was followed out of the harbor of Norfolk 
 by the British man of war Leopard, and under pretext of 
 putting despatches on board of the American vessel for 
 Europe, a demand made upon her for deserters. Commo- 
 dore Barron refusing to permit a search, but having a single 
 gun only in readiness, the Englishman fired a broadside, 
 killing and wounding a number of the Chesapeake's crew 
 and forcing a surrender. This outrage, it is said, incited 
 America to action, as no event since the battle of Lexington, 
 
 had done. 
 
 Compelled to act, Tresident Jefferson issued his proclama- 
 tion forbidding all British ships of war to remain in American 
 
11 
 
 waters. There followed in 1807 an extra session of Congress, 
 and an embargo which prevented American vessels from leav- 
 ing ports of the United States in the hope to punish, in this 
 way, England and France. But the experience of a few 
 months showed that the embargo -failed altogether to secure 
 the purpose had in view. It proved full of calamity to our. 
 selves. Adams' History treats of the effects of this measure. 
 As the order enforcing it was carried along the sea coast 
 "every artisan dropped his tools, every merchant closed 
 his doors, every ship was dismantled." It fell upon New 
 England with crushing effect. New York looked as if rav- 
 aged by pestilence. Not a box, bale, cask or barrel, or 
 package, was seen upon the wharves. But the true burden 
 of this restraint upon trade was cast upon the Southern 
 States, and especially upon the devoted State of Virginia, 
 which "with astounding rapidity succumbed to ruin." 
 March 1, 1809, the embargo was repealed and a non-inter- 
 course act — a law which, instead of universal prohibition of 
 trade, merely prohibited commerce with GreatBritain, and the 
 countries under French control, substituted in its place. The 
 non-intercourse act was almost the last signed by Jefferson as 
 President, and his second administration closed in a state of 
 political confusion. 
 
 The non-intercourse act empowered the President to sus- 
 pend the prohibition in question as to either Great Britain or 
 France, as soon as one or the other should desist from vio- 
 ating neutral rights. The Orders in Council being supposed 
 to have been withdrawn, under an agreement between Mr. 
 Erskine, the British Minister, and the Secretary of State, 
 non-intercourse was suspended by President Madison, and 
 foreign trade sprang at once into excessive activity. But Mr. 
 Erskine having been disavowed, and replaced by Mr. Jack- 
 son, non-intercourse was resumed under a proclamation by 
 President Madison, of August 9, 1809. The British govern- 
 ment yielded, seemingly, to the United States, by the adop- 
 tion of new Orders in Council which set aside the stringent 
 provisions of the orders of 1807, but substituted a paper 
 blockade of all ports and places under the government of 
 France. Congress, therefore, May 1, 1810, provided for com- 
 mercial non-intercourse to cease, and for the exclusion from 
 
12 
 
 American waters of armed ships only, and if the ohnoxious 
 orders and decrees involved should he recalled, for proclamation 
 of the fact by the President. 
 
 The conduct of France furnislied no less occasion for com- 
 plaint than the course of Great Britain, The representations 
 of the American minister, (General Armstrong;, instead of 
 procuring relief were followed by the Rambouillet decree of 
 May, 1810, which ordered the sale of American ships and 
 cargoes under seizure, and the confiscation of American 
 vessels entering ])Oits su])ject to French jurisdiction. Tliis 
 measure not having the desired effect of putting an en<l to 
 the forbidden trade followed in American vessels between 
 England and the continent, France gave notice that the Herlin 
 and Milan Decrees were revoked and would cease if Enylaml 
 would revoke her Orders in Council. The British lieing advised, 
 said, September 29, that they would rescind their orders in 
 Council when the French revocation actually took effect. 
 
 President Madison assumed that the French measures had 
 been revoked, and so announced November 1, ISIO. The 
 armed ships of France were no longer to be denied entrance 
 to American ports, and February 2, 1811, commercial inter- 
 course was once more suspended with Great Britain. In May 
 the British Court of Admiralty decided that there was no 
 evidence of the withdrawal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. 
 The practical result was to put an end to all hopes of an 
 amicable adjustment of difficulties with Great Britain. Com- 
 merce was permanently suspended and negotiations were 
 exhausted. Further provocation for war was given by the 
 capture oft" tSandy Hook of an American vessel, by some 
 fresh cases of search and impressment, and by an encounter 
 between the British sloop of war Little Belt and the American 
 frigate President. Over nine hundred American ships had 
 been seized by the British and more than five hundred and 
 fifty by the French. More than 0000 American citizens were 
 impressed as British seamen, or kept in prison if they refused 
 to serve. The American government was treated with disdain. 
 
 Such was the situation when Henry Clay entered the 
 House of Representatives, and with the co-operation of Mon- 
 roe in the cabinet, led the country into the war of 1812. His 
 exertions were indefatigable. Day after day his inspiring 
 
13 
 
 eloquence stirred the courage of his countrymen, and renewed 
 the struggle for a declaration of hostilities. "When the diffi- 
 culties which the British had to meet were urged, he rejected 
 suggestion of them with scorn. When he was asked, what 
 what are we to gain by war, his reply was, "What are we not 
 to lose by peace'? Commerce, character, a nation's best treas- 
 ure, Honor." There were undoubtedly desertions from the 
 British service to the American merchant marine, to the extent 
 of injuring the efficiency of the former. The language spoken 
 by the seamen of the two nations was the same. The British 
 insisted that the measures they resorted to were only those of 
 self-protection. When the captain of a British frigate over- 
 hauled an American merchantman for enemy's property or 
 contraband of war, he sent an officer on board who mustered 
 the crew" and took out every seaman he believed to be British. 
 How was he to do otherwise under his orders? How, Mr. 
 Clay was asked in debate on the floor, could the British 
 officer determine in any other manner the identity of his 
 own countrymen. The answer given by Clay sounded like a 
 a trumpet call to arms in the House, and was echoed every- 
 where throughout an aroused and indignant country. "If 
 " Great Britain," exclaimed the Kentucky statesman, "desires 
 *' a mark, by which she can know her own subjects, let her give 
 *' them an earmark. The colors that float from the mast-head 
 " should be the credentials of our seamen !" He maintained 
 that an honorable peace could only be attained by an effi- 
 cient war, and rallied to his support the young Repub- 
 lican leaders of the time in the House, John C. Calhoun, 
 William Lowndes, Felix Grundy, Langdon Cheves and others, 
 who, like himself, believed that if the American Republic 
 was to maintain anything like the dignity of an independent 
 power, it must cease to suhmit to humiliation; and in order toiire- 
 serve the respect of manJcind must fight when wronged or insulted. 
 A galaxy of able and eminent men adorned the councils of 
 the House at this time. Clay's plan was to call out the 
 resources of the country and negotiate peace at Quebec or 
 Halifax. He said: "We must come out crowned with 
 " success, but if we fail, let us fail like men ; lash ourselves 
 "to our gallant tars and expire in one common struggle, 
 *' lighting for free trade and seamen's rights." His defiance 
 
14 
 
 of England rings with the same high spirit as the reply to the 
 insult of France, received by the Commissioners sent by the 
 first President Adams, when they were told that they could 
 buy satisfaction of the just claims of their fellow-couutrymen, 
 and save American ships from further outrage by the French, 
 if they would give a bribe to Talleyrand. ''Millious for 
 defense,'^ said Charles Ootesworth Pinckney, uttering the 
 resolution of a whole people; *'Xot a cent for irihuk !" 
 
 Writers on Public Law, in order to distinguish it, from the 
 War of the Revolution, treat the War of 1812 as the War of 
 American Independence. It was a short war, but a necessary 
 and very important one. It taught the country the necessity 
 for a national currency having the same value in all places. 
 The protection of American industry independently of rev- 
 enue, or as a distinct object in itself, grew out of the state 
 of affairs brought on by the war, during which the want of 
 things required for national defence and essential to individual 
 comfort had been cruelly felt. The question of internal 
 improvements also assumed new proportions owing to the 
 want of facilities for transportation experienced in the military 
 operations of the United States, and the limits of the treaty 
 making power as between the President and Senate on the 
 one hand, and Congress, including the House of Kepresenta- 
 tives, on the other, called for and received further examina- 
 tion. 
 
 With all of these issues as they came on, the public services 
 of Mr. Clay were intimately connected, as they also were 
 with the question of slavery which began to be agitated 
 1819-20 on the admission of the State of Missouri into the 
 Union. Some difficulties grew out of the war or followed 
 rapidly upon its close, but it brought great benefits with it. 
 It elevated the national character before the world. It forced 
 Great Britain to abandon the impressment of our seamen. 
 It caused the national flag to be respected and advanced. 
 Notwithstanding its changing fortunes and some disasters, 
 especially in the beginning of the contest, it was fought with 
 intrepidity by the Americans, both on sea and land, and 
 ended gloriously with the victory of General Jackson, at 
 New Orleans. The war was a just one made for the rights, 
 and the independence of the United States. It is the theme 
 
15 
 
 of a proud chapter in the history of the Republic. Honor to 
 whom honor is due. Let us render it, then, to the names 
 of Henry Clay and of James Monroe, for except for their 
 devoted exertions a declaration of war would not have been 
 obtained.* 
 
 Having been appointed one of the commissioners to treat 
 for peace, Mr. Clay repaired with his colleagues, Mr. Adams, 
 Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Bayard and Mr. Russell, to Ghent. The 
 position of the United States, owing to the acquisition of 
 Louisiana, had become very different from what it was at the 
 
 time of the treaty of September 3, 1783. f On motion that 
 the navigation of the Mississippi should be offered to England 
 in exchange for the fisheries, Adams, Gallatin and Bayard 
 voted in the affirmative, but Clay and Russell in the negative. 
 Bayard afterwards joined the minority, and the proposition 
 was defeated. 
 
 Mr. Clay's knowledge of the situation was thorough and 
 he met it resourcefully. He never surrendered hope in the 
 future of the United States. He had the intuition of the 
 true statesman. He insisted that application of general prin- 
 ciples to the questions at issue would afford the solution 
 required, and secure for his country real independence with 
 complete sovereignty over the American empire, freed for- 
 ever from British interference. He met the trying difficulties 
 of the situation with judgment and with unwavering spirit. 
 Representing the majority, he contended upon considera- 
 tions that are clearly correct — that the fisheries had been 
 already recognized, because the treaty of 1783 made a 
 division between the United States and Great Britain that was 
 perpetual, being on the principle of the partition of an empire. 
 It followed that no further stipulation was required. A second 
 attempt was made by the representatives of Great Britain to 
 obtain the right of free navigation of the Mississippi, but was 
 abandoned. It was concluded, finally, to abstain from insert- 
 ing any article in the treaty in respect either to the fisheries or 
 the Mississippi. Nor was anything said relative to impress- 
 ment, but that was never attempted again by Great Britain. 
 
 ♦ Benton's Thirty Years. 
 
 t The preliminary treaty was signed Xovember 30, 1782. 
 
16 
 
 The treaty of Ghent conehuled the war between tlie two 
 countries on the 24th of December, 1S14. It was, all things 
 beinf? taken into account, truly a creditable treaty to the 
 United States, although far better terms would undoubtedly 
 have been obtained had it been delayed, and the contract- 
 ing parties been informed of the signal victory which 
 crowned the American arms at New Orleans under General 
 Jackson. 
 
 Returning in 181G from Europe, Mr. Clay was elected to 
 Congress, and instructed by the experience of the country 
 during the recent war, took position in favor of a Bank of the 
 United States, frankly avowing a change from the views Ije 
 had held on the subject in 1811. Somewhat later A. D. 1818 
 he moved to insert in tlie appropriation bill before the House 
 a provision approprirtting $18,000 for the outfit of a minister 
 to be sent from the United States to the independent provin- 
 ces of the River Li Plata in South America. In taking 
 this step he assigned for it the highest considerations of na- 
 tional statesmanship, first on the principle consecrated in 
 reason and in history, that an oppressed people are authorized 
 to rise whenever theif can against their masters, and, secondly, 
 because we had a deep interest invoicing our commerce and navi- 
 gation and our politics, in recognizing the South American States 
 as independent nations. He was defeated in the beginning, 
 but had the satisfaction afterward, 1820, to secure the rec- 
 ognition of the South American States ; and in 1824, to sup- 
 port upon views at least in part the same, the Resolution of 
 Daniel Webster for the recognition of Grecian independence. 
 In the masterly address of Mr. Webster on the Panama mis- 
 sion, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 14th, 
 182G, departing from his custom not to speak of individuals 
 he warmly repelled the attacks made on Mr. Clay's course as 
 that of a visionary enthusiast with reference to South 
 America. 
 
 "If sir," said Mr. Webster, " it be true that that gentle- 
 " man (Mr. Clay) prompted by an ardent love of civil liberty, 
 " felt earlier than others a proper sympathy for the strug- 
 " gling colonies of South America; or that acting on the 
 " maxim that Revolutions do not go backward, he had the 
 
17 
 
 * sagacity to foresee earlier thau others, the successful termi- 
 
 * nation of those strug-gles ; if thus feeling, and thus perceiv- 
 
 * ing, it fell to him to lead the willing or unwilling counsels 
 
 * of his country, in her manifestations of kindness to the 
 ' new governments, and in her seasonable recognition of 
 ' their independence — if it be this which the honorable mem- 
 
 * ber imputes to him, if it be by this course of public conduct 
 ' that he has identij&ed his name with the cause of South 
 
 * American liberty, he ought to be esteemed one of the most 
 ' fortunate men of the age. If all this be as now represented, 
 ' he has acquired fame enough. It is enough for any man 
 ' thus to have connected himself with the greatest events of 
 
 * the age in which he lives, and to have been foremost in 
 
 * measures which reflect high honor on his country, in the 
 'judgment of mankind." 
 
 President Monroe in his annual message, December 2, 1823, 
 announced the doctrine which has come to bear his name and 
 which consists of two parts, the first being that the American 
 continents are not to be considered as subjects for European 
 colonization ; the second, that we will not view, except as a 
 manifestation of an unfriendly disposition to the United 
 States, any interposition by any European power, to oppress, 
 or to reduce to control the governments, on this side of 
 the Atlantic, which have declared their independence and 
 maintained it, and whose independence we have acknowl- 
 edged. 
 
 A resolution was offered soon afterwards, by Mr. Clay 
 
 which virtually repeats the second portion of the Monroe 
 
 doctrine. It declared, " that the American people would not 
 
 ' see without serious inquietude any forcible interposition of 
 
 ' the allied powers of Europe in behalf of Spain, to reduce 
 
 ' to their former subjection those parts of America which 
 
 ' have proclaimed and established for themselves, respee- 
 
 ' tively, independent governments, and which have been 
 
 ' solemnly recognized by the United States." His speeches 
 
 were translated into Spanish and read at the head of the 
 
 armies of the South American patriots to incite them to 
 
 battle. The ode of the Poet Whittier to Henry Clay celebrates 
 
 his speeches for the Greeks : 
 
18 
 
 "The Grecian as he feeds his llocks 
 " In Tempe's vale, on Morea*s rocks. 
 '•Or where the gleam of l)rii;ht blue waters 
 •' I.« caiiglit by Scii)*s white armed daughters, 
 " While dwelling on the dubious strife, 
 " Which ushered in his nation's life, 
 " Shall mingle in his grateful lay. 
 •• lioz/.aris with the name of Clayl'"* 
 
 When President Mouroe, in his first message to Cougress 
 of December 1, 1817, referriuj^ to the veto by liis predecessor 
 in office, 3Ir. Madison, of the act concerning a fund for 
 internal improvements, declared his own settled conviction 
 that Congress did not possess the right of constructing roads 
 and canals, Mr. Clay made known the constitutional views 
 which brought him to support a policy in favor of internal 
 improvements, and as he urged, on repeated occasions his 
 opinions with all the ardor of \vhich he was capable, I ven- 
 ture to place them very brieHy before you in a general way 
 as those of the foremost champion of this. policy. He found 
 the power in question in the largest considerations of the 
 public welfare. It was neither more nor less th<ut that of (Jijfusing 
 Juippiness, intelligence and affluence throughout the nation. All 
 the powers of government, he argued, should be interpreted 
 in reference to its first, its best, its greatest object, the union 
 of the States. Under the constitution, according to his 
 view, government could exercise any power which was either 
 expressly granted by that instrument or impliable from an 
 express grant. This is the doctrine also of the great Chief 
 Justice in the case of McCuUogh vs. the State of Maryland, 
 4th Wh. 316, A. D. 1819, who acting as the organ of the 
 Supreme Court in the case cited, decided that the word 
 
 *The first stanza of the ode to Clay above quoted, refers to the 
 slander that there was a corrupt coalition between John <,Juincy Adams 
 and Clay, by which, in return for Clay's support of Adams, the latter 
 was elected over Jackson to the Presidency, by the House of Kepre- 
 sentatives, in 1825, and the office of Secretary of State given to Clay : 
 
 " Ay — stand erect! the cloud is broken — 
 " Above thee bends the rainbow's token I 
 " The shadow of thy onward waj- 
 •' Is blending into perfect day; 
 " The slanders of the venal train 
 " Assail thy honest name in vain; 
 " For thou wilt be as thou hast l)een, 
 " The hope of free and patriot men I " 
 
 — Sai-gent's Clay, Ed. b>j Greeley. 
 
19 
 
 necessary iu the Constitution, as in the common affairs of the 
 world, frequently imports no more than that one thiu^ is 
 convenient or useful, or essential, to another, and that the 
 national legislature must be allowed to have that discretion 
 with regard to the means by which the powers it confers are 
 to be carried into effect which will enable that body 
 to perform the high duties assigned to it in the manner most 
 beneficial to the people. The language of Chief Justice Mar- 
 shall is: "Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the 
 "scope of the constitution, and all means which are appro- 
 " priate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not 
 "prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the 
 " constitution, are constitutional." The opinions of Mr. Clay 
 found before long the highest sanction in the adoption 
 of them by John Quincy Adams, then become President. 
 According to Mr, Adams, the great object of the con- 
 stitution of civil government is the improvement of those 
 who are parties to the social compact. Referring to powers 
 given in the Constitution, he said: " If these powers may 
 " be effectually brought into action by laws promoting 
 "the improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufac- 
 " tures, the cultivation of the mechanic and of the elegant 
 " arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the 
 " sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain from exercis- 
 " ing them for the benefit of the people themselves would be 
 " to hide in the earth the talent committed to our charge, — 
 " would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts." 
 
 Jefferson, Madison and Monroe thought that there was no 
 warrant in the Constitution for carrying out a policy of in- 
 ternal improvements, such as has become at this day the 
 familiar practice of the government at every session of Con- 
 gress. I happen to have in my possession a letter of Jeffer- 
 son, written to Edward Livingston when the latter had, as 
 Senator in Congress from the State of Louisiana, made an 
 elaborate speech in favor of internal improvements. Mr. 
 Jefferson's letter is praiitically a protest against the course 
 taken by Mr, Livingston, and an appeal to him as a member 
 of the Republican party of the time, to return to the true 
 policy of the party, Down to a comparatively late period in 
 its history, the Democratic party refused its approval to a 
 
20 
 
 system of internal improvements. Mr. Clay was wise, and, 
 as I submit, very far-seeint;. lie was greatly in advance on 
 this subject, not only of the Democratic party, but of many 
 of the first Republican statesmen of his time. Now that the 
 resources of the country have been developed by the applica- 
 tion to them of his enlightened and liberal views, and that 
 they are universally accepted as indispensable to commerce 
 and navigation, and to tlie increase of national wealth, 
 we are left only to wonder at the opposition they en- 
 countered. He contended against the position taken 
 by Monroe, and held, tiiat in the power to establish post 
 roads conferred by the Constitution on Congress, there is 
 included the power to build roads and to keep them in repair. 
 The power to regulate commerce, he rightfully claimed, im- 
 plies the authority to foster it. 
 
 According to his high authority, tlie power to make all 
 needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and 
 other property of the United States, conveys the power to 
 Congress to legislate for the territories. All who have had 
 occasion to look into the treaty making power, and into the 
 possible extent to which it may be carried, know that it is un- 
 limited in its nature, except so far as any limitations may be 
 found in the Constitution of the United States. The power of 
 acquisition by treaty carries with it the power to gom-n (ill the 
 territory acquired. 
 
 It is especially interesting to us, Fellow Citizens, at this 
 particular juncture, to take notice in presence of the vast 
 interest New Orleans has in the building of the Nicaragua 
 Canal that Mr. Clay contended, that the government derived 
 the right to make canals from its authority to declare and 
 prosecute war, and that it derived the same right from its 
 authority to regulate commerce. " Congress, " said he, 
 
 * has power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
 ' among the several States. Precisely the same measure of 
 ' power which is granted in one case, is conferred in the 
 'other." "Sir:" (he exclaimed) "It is a subject of 
 ' peculiar delight to me to look forward to the proud and 
 ' happy period, distant as it may be, when circulation and 
 ' association between the Atlantic and Pacific shall be as free 
 
 * and perfect as they are at this moment in England, and, in 
 
21 
 
 *' any other, the most highly improved country on the globe. 
 *' Sir, a new world has come into being since the Constitution 
 " was adopted. Are the narrow limited necessities of the old 
 " thirteen States as they existed at the formation of the 
 «' Constitution, forever to remain a rule of its interpretation? 
 " Are we to neglect and refuse the redemption of that vast 
 " wilderness which once stretched beyond the Alleghany? I 
 " hope for better and nobler things." 
 
 Let us, as well as we can m a moment of time, take up 
 these broad and statesmanlike views of Henry Clay, replete 
 as they are with all imaginable love of country, and apply 
 them to the conditions of the present day. In the course of 
 the proud and stupendous progress of the Republic, applica- 
 tion of the Monroe doctrine has come to be yielded to by the 
 foremost nations of Europe. Cuba and Porto Rico have been 
 set free from the yoke of the Spaniard, and Cuba and other 
 islands of the West Indies, as well as Porto Rico, are evidently 
 to be American territory. The Sandwich Islands and the Phil- 
 ippine Archipelago are already within reach of the blessings 
 of knowledge, of science and the arts, as well as of civil 
 government, and through the open door to the East, a com- 
 merce the most alluring that has ever been dreamed of, is 
 about to pour its way to the American shores, under the pro- 
 tection of a powerful navy manned by the best and bravest 
 seamen the world has ever seen, able to hold distant as well 
 as the neighboring seas, and carrying the flag of the United 
 States at the masthead to every part of the circumnavigable 
 globe. Are we, I ask, to turn away from and to reject such 
 a prospect as this? I answer the question in the words of 
 Henry Clay just quoted. I would re-echo those words now, 
 and, if I could, have them heard everywhere. I, too, fellow- 
 citizens, fervently hope for better and nobler things ! 
 
 A petition for the admission of Missouri as a State was 
 presented in the House of Representatives March 6, 1818, and 
 a bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form a State gov- 
 ernment was taken up in that body February 13, 1819. The 
 , agitating and dangerous question of slavery was therefore in- 
 troduced, and the struggle it provoked lasted intermittently, 
 until March, 1821. Pending the bill an amendment was pro- 
 posed by Mr. Tallmadge, a representative from New York, 
 
22 
 
 providing that the further introduction of slavery should be 
 prohibited, and that all children born within the State should 
 be free at the age of twenty-five years. In the House the bill 
 with the amendment passed, but the amendment was stricken 
 out in the Senate, and the houses severally adhering to their 
 opinion, the bill was defeated. On the renewal of the dis- 
 cussion at the next session, the debate was even more angry 
 than at first. At last by means of conference the following 
 compromise was brought about : 
 
 Missouri was received into the Union without restriction, 
 and by the 8th section of the act admitting her it was provided, 
 " that in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, 
 " under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty- 
 " six degrees and thirty minutes, north latitude, not included 
 " within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, 
 " slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the 
 " punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have 
 " been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby forever pro- 
 '' hibited : Provided ahcai/s, that any person escaping into 
 " the same from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, 
 *' in any State or territory of the United States, such fugi- 
 " five may be lawfully reclaimed, aud conveyed to the person 
 " claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid." 
 
 The act here cited did not absolutely admit Missouri, but 
 only authorized her to form a constitution not repugnant to the 
 Constitution of the United States, and directed that the State 
 Constitution should be transmitted to Congress. A final reso- 
 lution would then be necessary for the admission of Missouri. 
 A. D. 1820, the people of the Territory of Missouri ordained 
 a constitution, with the following (26th section, 3d article), 
 that it should be the duty of the (jeneral Assembly, " as soon 
 " as might be, to pass such laws as were necessary to prevent 
 " free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and settling in 
 " the State on any pretext whatever." The proposed re- 
 striction renewed the agitation, and the contention became 
 so fierce as to imperil most seriously the public safety. 
 
 In May, 1820, at the close of the session, Mr, Clay, having 
 suffered severe losses as endorser for a friend, announced his 
 temporary withdrawal from attendance upon Congress. He 
 returned to Kentucky to repair his fortunes by the practice of 
 
23 
 
 law, and November 20 resigned the office of Speaker, although 
 he retained his membership in the Honse. 
 
 The Constitution provides that "the citizens of each 
 State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immuni- 
 " ties of citizens of the several States," Mr. Clay re- 
 turning to Washington January 16, 1821, in view of the 
 Constitution, moved for the appointment of a committee 
 of thirteen, and reported a resolution to admit Missouri 
 "on an equal footing with the original States in all 
 " respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition that 
 " the said State shall never pass any law preventing any 
 *' description of persons from coming to and settling in the 
 " said State who now are, or hereafter may become citizens 
 ** of any of the States of this Union." The resolution pro- 
 vided further, that as soon as the Legislature of Missouri 
 should, by solemn public act, have declared the assent of the 
 State to this provision, the President should by proclamation 
 announce the fact, whereupon the admission of the State 
 should be considered complete. The report on being taken 
 up was lost in the House of Representatives by a vote of 83 
 to 80. The following day February 13 a scene of tumult and 
 confusion arose, when the vote for President and Vice 
 President was counted on the issue whether or not the vote 
 of Missouri should be enumerated. The rejection of the 
 report of Mr. Clay's committee of thirteen created a profound 
 sensation. Scenes of anarchy and of bloodshed appeared to 
 be very close. 
 
 February 22, 1821, Clay moved for a committee of twenty- 
 three to correspond with the number of States, to take up the 
 question at issue afresh, and the motion was adopted , Finally 
 a resolution was agreed to and passed, not varying materially 
 from that to which I have referred. The President issued 
 his proclamation and the State was admitted. The public 
 announcement was received with bursts of rejoicing. The 
 bells rang. Cannon were fired, and there was every demon- 
 stration of exultation and joy throughout the whole land. 
 Clay was hailed the savior of his country — the pacificator of 
 ten millions of people. It was generally admitted that the 
 result was mainly due to his influence — to his expostulations 
 and persuasion with members — to his sincerity and anxious 
 
24 
 
 entreaties — to his zeal and perseverance, and to the warmth 
 and eloquence of the personal appeals which he urped. 
 
 John J. Crittenden, speaking of the achievement, said that 
 " it was the sjreatest civil triumpii ever achieved by mortal 
 man." Only a short time before the accomplishment of the 
 settlement, Mr. Jefferson wrote from Monticello: "The 
 *' Missouri question is the most portentous one that ever 
 " threatened the Union. In the gloomiest moments of the 
 " Revolutionary War, I never had any apprehension equal to 
 " that I feel from this source." John (^uincy Adams ap- 
 proved tin- {'<»mpromise as all that could be effected under 
 the Constitution, and from extreme unwillingness to put the 
 Union at hazard. He wrote in his diary that one of " the 
 greatest results of this conHiot of three sessions" was "to 
 bring into full display the talents and resources and inHuence 
 of Mr. Clay." The biography of Clay, wiiich Carl Schurz 
 has offered as a contribution to American political literature, 
 appropriately observes, that Clay was always the most con- 
 spicuous figure whenever he appeared in a jjiirliamentary 
 contest, and in this instance that he impressed himself on 
 the popular mind as the leading actor in the drama. 
 
 On the conclusion of the war with England, Mr. Clay ad- 
 vocated a protective policy. Most of the Federalists opposed it, 
 while Calhoun, Lowndes, and other Southern men supported 
 it. A tremendous importation of English goods flooded the 
 country, and American industry, which had been artificially 
 developed during the contest, now called for governmental 
 aid, but the principal argument which Mr. Clay urged, and 
 which the Republicans accepted, was that certain manufactur- 
 ing itidustries must he built up and sustained for the security of 
 the country in time of uar. It was in this way that the tariff 
 of 181 G came to be adopted, but it failed to prevent the reac- 
 tion which had been apprehended on the return of peace, and 
 after an ineffectual attempt for a general revision of duties 
 in order to reach higher duties, in January, 1824, Mr. Clay 
 brought forward, under the name of the Anierican System, 
 the tariff bill of that year, and supported it in an elaborate 
 address of the first order of ability. 
 
 When it was objected that the American system would 
 operate unequally ; that the South being a planting and 
 
25 
 
 agricultural community, could not engage in manufacturing, lie 
 replied that the obstacles were imaginary ; that the South could 
 manufacture ; but supposing the case to be otherwise, that the 
 South had no right to claim that the policy of the Union should 
 be established in sole reference to the condition of the blacks — 
 that the whole country should become the slave of the slaves. 
 Besides, ultimately, if the South did not manufacture, it 
 would be able to purchase for its wants at home, at a greatly 
 diminished price. To the objection that the tariff would 
 diminish our navigation Mr. Clay answered, that if he was 
 ■correct, in supposing that our industry would produce new 
 objects of exportation, our navigation would receive addi- 
 tional encouragement. Even if our navigation did suffer 
 temporary depression, the increase of the coasting trade 
 would bring us more than a compensation. He denied that 
 the American system would force capital into new and 
 reluctant employments. At any rate, manual labor is but 
 a trifling consideration in the manufacturing arts. Almost 
 everything is now done by machinery. The circumstances 
 most favorable for success in manufacturing are capital and 
 raw material, ingenuity in the construction of machinery and 
 adroitness in the application of it. Our citizens being defi- 
 cient in no one of these, with proper protection would have 
 complete success. Mr. Clay refuted the argument that 
 manufactures would spring up unaided. This could not be 
 and never has been where they are brought in contact with 
 protected manufactures. 
 
 To those who said that in adopting protection we only put 
 on the cast-off habiliments of other nations, he said no 
 nation having once secured the benefits of the restrictive 
 system had given them up. The visionary speculations of 
 theoretical writers whenever adopted had brought poverty 
 with them. Great Britain had protected not only all her vast 
 dominions, but the parent country against the colonies. Sup- 
 posing, however, Great Britain should abolish all restrictions 
 upon trade we ought by no means to follow her example, be- 
 cause, by reason of the perfection of her arts, in case of free 
 trade, every American manufacturer would become a bankrupt. 
 To the suggestion that the tariff is unconstitutional, he an- 
 swered this is a fresh discovery. The Constitution authorizes 
 
26 
 
 Confjress to regulate coraraeree with foreign nations. Under 
 this clause we had already passed embargoes, laws of total non- 
 intercourse effecting an entire cessation with all the nations of 
 the earth. The American system proposed that while imports 
 should be mainly, and under modifications might safely be re- 
 lied on a.s a fit and convenient source of Revenue, the duties on 
 foreign fabrics should be so adjusted and arranged as to give 
 gradual protection to American industry, securing ultimately 
 a cheaper supply from our own abundant resources, while 
 lessening, meanwhile, our dependence on foreign nations. 
 Mr. Clay insisted at different times thai no one at the commence- 
 ment of the protective policy supposed that it was to be perpetual. 
 We hoped and believed that temporary protection extended to our 
 infant manufactories would bring them up, and enable them to 
 icithstand competition with those of Europe. 
 
 The speecii of yiv. Clay of the year 1824, on the tariff, is by 
 far the best sustained and the strongest argument I have seen 
 in favor of the doctrine of protection. No student of Ameri- 
 can politics can afford to remain unacquainted with it. It 
 was stated to me by John Randolph Tucker, a distinguished 
 Representative in Congress from the State of Virginia, (who, 
 according to the testimony of the late Sanniel -T. Tilden, of 
 New York, had himself contributed most valual>le informa- 
 tion to the discussion on the tariff in the House, wiiich culmi- 
 nated in the election to the Speakership of John iiv'iffin Carlisle 
 of Kentucky), that while the more recent debaters had 
 had later statistics, they had been able to add nothing to the 
 ability with which the arguments of the time of Clay had 
 been conducted. Mr. Tucker's statement is the more remark- 
 able, as well as valuable, because of his championship of the 
 principles of free trade.* A Democratic majority in the House 
 followed the eminent leadership of Carlisle, Morrison, Tucker 
 and others of their opinion. It seems to me proper to add that 
 
 * .lohn Bach McMaster, in his article on Daniel Webster in the 
 Century Magazine for June, 11)01. says: 
 
 " More than three-quarters of a century have passed since that day, 
 " yet l;he respective merits of free trade and protection are as far as ever 
 
 " brilliant speech by Clay, nor more forcibly combated than they were 
 "in the vigorous reasoning of Webster." 
 
27 
 
 I never was able to do so. The statesmen from Virginia were 
 not of the constitutional school of John Marshall. Those of 
 Kentucky were in arms against the American system of Henry 
 Clay. I expect to recall always with pleasure a conversation 
 between Mr. Carlisle and another Representative in Congress, 
 on the floor of the House, at which I was present. The 
 name of Clay was brought in question. Mr. Carlisle closed 
 the subject in a way which allowed of no rejoinder. " Mr. 
 Clay," said the then Speaker of the House with reverence 
 of manner as well as of words which did him honor, " was 
 a very great man;^^ and so, fellow-citizens, he was, and so 
 he will be always thought of by everyone whose opinion is 
 entitled to any weight. 
 
 The tarife of 1828 is known in American history as the 
 ' ' tariff of abominations. ' ' It was adopted during the adminis- 
 tration of John Quincy Adams, when Mr. Clay had become 
 Secretary of State and there was an anti-administration 
 majority in the House. The act gave great dissatisfaction in 
 the planting States. They complained that they had to bear 
 all the burdens and received none of benefits of the act. A 
 great commotion arose in South Carolina against the tariff, 
 and led the way to Nullification, the theory of which was 
 that any single State had the right to declare a law of the 
 United States unconstitutional, void and not binding. It 
 was argued ia support of the proposition, against the principles 
 of human nature and the history of States, that if the right 
 of nullification were recognized a good understanding would 
 be promoted, because the majority listening to reason, there 
 would result only a suspension of the offensive law nntil the 
 mistake of the majority was rectified. Otherwise the State 
 aggrieved should have the constitutional Right of Secession. 
 
 Daniel Webster's speech in answer to Robert Young Hayne, 
 who stood for the position of the uullitiers, was, as Mr. Clay 
 testified, "a noble triumph." Such a speech would have 
 been great in any age, in any country, and in any delibera- 
 tive body of statesmen that the world has seen, and with 
 other speeches by Webster, earned rank for him with the 
 first orators of history— with Demosthenes and Cicero, Chat- 
 ham and Burke. Edward Everett, speaking of the reply to 
 Hayne, said, that it placed before him more completely than 
 
28 
 
 !iuy other address he had ever heard his conception of Demos- 
 thenes when he delivered the oration for the crown. Kufus 
 Choate, referring to the celebrated etfort of Webster before a 
 jury on the trial of John Francis Knapp, made in the same year 
 with his reply to Hayne in the Senate,. observed that he conld 
 not help considering it a more difficult and higher effort of 
 the mind than the Oration for the Crown. 
 
 The speei'li of Daniel Webster on Foot's Resolutions in reply 
 to Senator llayne, of South Carolina, was made in the Senate 
 .lanuary 2(3 and 27, 1830. On the ensuing liJth of April, on 
 the occasion of the celebration in Washington, by a banquet, 
 of Jefferson's birthday, when General Jackson was called upon 
 for a toast, he gave the sentiment which has become histor- 
 ical, and which is engraved on the pedestal of Mills' e<[ues- 
 trian .statue in Jackson Stpiare, in the city of New Orleans: 
 "0«r Federal Union; it must he preserved.'" John C. Callioun 
 had not yet disclosed his position on Nullitication, but owing 
 to the feeling which had been spreading ever since Webster's 
 address, the toast of the President was received as the an- 
 nouncement hi/ him of a plot against the Union, and as a sum- 
 mons to the people to come to the rescue. It electrified the 
 country. (Jn the relation of a learned and accomplished 
 friend of my early life, Henry D. Gilpin, who was Attorney 
 General in the cabinet of Mr. Van Buren, I am able to state 
 that the sentiment referred to came from the latter. "Gen- 
 eral," said Mr. Van Buren, as he offered the suggestion, "you 
 ought to give some such sentiment as this." It came to pass 
 when General Jackson actually did so, that it fell according to 
 the testimony of Benton, like a thunderbolt upon the conspirators. 
 
 In 1831 and 1832, Mr. Calhoun published addresses urging 
 on South Carolina an immediate issue on account of the op- 
 pressive tariff legislation referred to. The legislature was 
 convened October 22, 1832, to consider the usurpations of the 
 General Government, and a convention was called. The 
 convention assembled November 10th, and adopted an ordi- 
 nance declaring the tariff Act of 1823 and the amendment of 
 1832 null and void, and that it should be unlawful to enforce 
 the payment of duties thereunder in the State, and that it 
 should be the duty of the Legislature to make laws giving 
 effect to the ordinance, and, if the Government should 
 
29 
 
 attempt the ea£orcemeat of the law, the State would secede. 
 The law was to go into effect February 1, 1833. 
 
 November 19 the Legislature met and passed appropriate 
 legislation. Preparation was made for a conflict of arms. 
 December 10 ensuing, there appeared the famous proclama- 
 tion of General Jackson announcing the attitude of the Gov- 
 ernment and its determination to enforce at all hazards 
 the laws of the United States. It is an elaborate paper of 
 finest excellence, in both form and matter, in every way 
 worthy of a lawgiver and jurist who was an ornament to 
 the entire bar of the country. It is now well known 
 that it was written by Edward Livingston, who had re- 
 signed his seat as a Senator from the State of Louisiana, 
 to become Secretary of State. It may not be uninteresting 
 to those who are good enough to listen to me here to-day 
 to say, that the original of the proclamation in the hand- 
 writing of the author is in my possession, and also a letter 
 addressed to him by the President, in which the latter makes 
 some brief suggestions advising the Secretary that the bearer 
 of his note, Andrew Jackson Donelson, awaited the last 
 sheets of the proclamation, and requesting Mr. Livingston 
 "to give it his loftiest flight !" It assumed the position 
 that the Constitution forms a government, operating directly 
 on the citizen and intended to be everlasting, and not a mere 
 league of States; and established, as I believe, by an argu- 
 ment of unanswerable strength, that the Constitution does 
 not contain the flagrant absurdity of giving a power to make 
 laws, and at the same time another power to resist them. 
 The proclamation spoke for the President to his misguided 
 fellow-citizens of South Carolina, in the affecting language 
 of a father. He appealed to them by the memory of their 
 revolutionary ancestors, to retrace their steps, to reassemble 
 their convention, and to call upon it to repeal its disorganiz- 
 ing edict. He solemnly warned them that resistance to the 
 national authority would be met by recourse to force. 
 
 When in December 1834 the United States were confronted 
 with the danger of a war with France, owing to the refusal 
 of the latter country to discharge the American claims for the 
 depredations committed by the French upon American ship- 
 ping, Mr. Livingston left the Department of State, and, 
 
30 
 
 appointeil and confirmed minister to France, whither he was 
 sent in the ship of the line Delaware, conducted to the admi- 
 ration of his countrymen the difficult ne^n)tiations, which 
 reached a diplomatic rupture when his passports were ten- 
 dered him and the French minister was at the same time 
 withdnuvn from Washinp^ton. 
 
 The services of Mr. Clay were most instrumental in pre- 
 serving peace at home and afterwards abroad in both of the 
 important emergencies I have just mentioned. 
 
 The proclamation of Jackson was received by the nullifiers 
 with defiance. Calhoun resigned the Vice Presidency and 
 entered the Senate to advocate nullification. The Presi- 
 dent called for strong measures, and the Force Bill was 
 l)assed. 
 
 Taking the field again as the Champion of Compromise. 
 Mr. Clay procured simultaneously with the ])assage of this 
 l>ill, a measure for the gradual reduction of the tariff, until 
 184-2. when it was to stand at 20 per cent, as a horizontal list 
 with a large free list. South Carolina repealed her nullifica- 
 tion ordinance. Clay contended that the Force Bill and the 
 Bill of Peace should go together for the good of the country: 
 the first to demonstrate the power and the disposition to 
 vindicate the authority and supremacy of the Union, 
 the second, to offer tJiat which accepted in the proper fra- 
 ternal spirit in which it was tendered, would supersede the 
 necessity of the employment of force. When charged 
 with being ambitious his answer to his accusers was, " I 
 " have ambition. But it is the ambition of being the 
 " humble instrument in the hands of Providence to recon- 
 " cile a divided people, once more to revive concord and har- 
 " mouy in a distracted land— the pleasing ambition of cou- 
 " tenjplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosper- 
 " ousand fraternal people." 
 
 The bill of Mr. Clay passed. The country welcomed it 
 with great favor. He had won a second time the title of 
 Pacificator. Senator Benton says that the legislation was 
 received as a deliverance, and the estimable authors of it 
 greeted as benefactors and their work declared by legislatures 
 to be sacred and inviolable, and every citizen doomed to 
 political outlawry that did not give in his adhesion and bind 
 himself to the perfecting of the act. 
 
31 
 
 Addressine: himself to the task of adjusting the difficulty 
 with France, Mr. Clay was enabled through the wisdom and 
 moderation of his report, made in the important place of 
 chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Senate, 
 to avert the threatened calamity of a foreign war. 
 
 The treaty of July 4, 1831, promised to pay the United 
 states $5,000,000 in six installments, but on a draft being 
 drawn upon France, payment was refused because there had 
 been no appropriation made by the Chambers. Mr. Living- 
 ston having duly reported a confidential intimation he had 
 received from the King of France that an earnest passage in 
 the message of the President might secure payment, General 
 Jackson actually proceeded to recommend reprisals. The 
 French exclaimed against this as a threat which made it 
 impossible for France to pay without dishonor and it became 
 necessary to do something to keep open friendly nego- 
 tiations. This was accomplished by reference to the Com- 
 mittee on Foreign Relations of which Clay was chairman. 
 Mr. Clay's report pointed out that the President had sug- 
 gested reprisals in the alternative only in his annual 
 message of December, 1834, that is in case provision for 
 payment should not be made at the next session of the 
 French Chambers. He insisted that while the President 
 and the whole people of the United States stood together, 
 and the indemnity was due, it behooved -our Government 
 not to anticipate breach by France of her solemn engagements 
 and to treat her with confidence. It was unanimously 
 resolved, in consequence, by the Senate, eTanuary 14, 1835, 
 that any legislation at that time, was inexpedient. The gov- 
 ernment of England having intervened to tender its offices as a 
 mediator, France retreated from her original demand for sat- 
 isfactory explanations of the President's message of 1834, by 
 making the declaration that Jackson's annual message of 1835 
 (which was addressed to the American Congress only, and in 
 which he had said that he had never used menace) was a 
 sufficient disclaimer. The money was paid, and the incident 
 closed with increase to the popularity of Jackson ; but Mr. 
 Clay's report unquestionably contributed largely to the 
 success of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Clay spoke against the British outrage in the case of 
 the Caroline which arose in 1837. He advised cautious pro- 
 
32 
 
 ceedinprs to avoid war ^^ith Enfjland wlien the matter of a 
 territorial government for Oref^on was in (juestiou. He 
 counseled moderation in the matter of the American claim 
 against Mexico. He supported a bill against dueling in the 
 District of Columbia. He showed himself a friend to the 
 ripfht of petition, and while opposed to slavery a supporter 
 of the riL'hts of the States as established bv the fatiiers. 
 The candid enquirer will find no diniculty in understanding 
 his political faith. He said: "I am no friend of slavery. 
 " 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 
 " / prefer the liherti/ of tni/ oirti country to that of ami other 
 " people, and the Utierty of my own rare to that of any othrr rare. 
 " The liberty of the descendants of Afrira in the United States 
 " is incompatible with the liberty and safety of the European 
 ** descendants.'' • • • This utterance, in particular, leads 
 me to recall the letter of August 20, 1862, of Abraham 
 Lincoln to Horace Greeley made ])ublie when the former 
 declined, as he did at first, the importunities of the extreme 
 men of his party, to issue the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
 and his declaration of an earlier period of his eventful life, 
 that Henry Clay was his beau ideal of a statesman. =•= 
 
 Having held the- Whig party together, notwithstanding the 
 staggering effects upon it of Tyler's Bank vetoes, Mr. Clay 
 took leave of the Senate March 31, 1842, in a brief speech 
 which abounds in qualities of excellence. I mention here 
 only some of these. Its elevation of thought and gener- 
 ous consideration for others ; the dignity, the courtesy, the 
 grace which appear throughout it, and the warmth of affec- 
 tion it breathes for his honored associates. The address 
 marked an epoch in the history of the Senate, and is espec- 
 
 * Says the letter of President Lincoln above referred to: — 
 "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and 
 " is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union 
 " without freeing any slaves, I would do it: and if I could save it by 
 " freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing 
 " some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do 
 " about slavery and the colored race, I do because it helps to save the 
 " Union; and what I forbear. I forbear because I do not believe it 
 '' would help to save the Union." 
 
33 
 
 ially memorable for the fact that it remains to the present 
 time (unless the leave-taking of Southern Senators at the out- 
 break of the war may be so classed) the only valedictory de- 
 livered by a Senator ou retiring from his place. This, Ben- 
 ton declares, was the first occasion of the kind, and thus far 
 had been the last. The Senator of thirty years goes on to 
 observe, that it might not be recommendable for any one 
 except another Henry Clay, if, indeed, another should ever 
 appear to repeat it. 
 
 When overpowered by the scene, the Senate found itself 
 disabled for the transaction of business during the rest of 
 that day, it proceeded by a unanimous vote to adjourn. The 
 Senators then crowded around Clay to respond to his affect- 
 ing words of farewell. As he left the chamber, it happened 
 that he met the great Senator from South Carolina, 
 who (except for the presence of Clay and Webster) would 
 have been matchless as an orator on the tloor. There had. 
 been an un^happy estrangement between Calhoun and Clay. 
 Meeting as they now did on the eve of a separation, believed 
 by both to be final, they shook hands and made friends. 
 
 There is another short address of Mr. Clay, as Speaker of 
 the House, years before that just mentioned, and made as a 
 ceremonial act, A, D. 1824, to bid welcome to Lafayette when 
 he visited the capital as the guest of the nation, to which I 
 ought not to omit reference, first because, although in a dif- 
 ferent way, it was equally solemn and touching with the fare- 
 well to the Senate; and, secondly, because it has always 
 appeared to me a bright example of the truth which is 
 presented by Cicero, that he is eloquent, who is able to 
 speak with appropriateness or naturally. Is enim eloquens 
 est qui et humilia suhtiliter et magna grariter et mediocria tern- 
 perate potest dicere. It was on the occasion of the visit of 
 Lafayette to our country that the ancient college of 
 Harvard, by the golden mouth of one of its sons — Edward 
 Everett — long time the first scholar in public life in the 
 United States, laid, August 26, 1824, its tribute of rever- 
 ence and affection before him in a chaste and beautiful 
 oration of unanswerable power of reasoning, to show 
 that republican institutions, to found which Lafayette 
 had acted his devoted and heroic part, are favorable to the 
 advancement of literature and the fine arts. 
 
34 
 
 Mr. Clay did not appear in the Senate again until the time 
 of the administration of General Taylor. Notwithstanding 
 the reassertion by him of strong anti-slavery opinions, and 
 the fact that these were objectionable to a majority of the 
 people of Kentucky, he was elected Senator for a full term 
 l)y the unanimous vote of the Legislature and took his seat 
 December, 1S49. The Southern disunionists witnessed the 
 prospects of his return to public life with (tpenly avowed 
 regret and apprehension. The Mexican War and the conse- 
 quent acquisition of new territory had revived the agitation 
 of the slavery question. Mr. Clay had the year previous 
 only, made known his views. lie thought the South ought 
 to assent to the exclusion of slavery from the new territories. 
 If, he said, the South refused to accept such exclusion, I 
 quote his letter of the year 1S4S to James E. Harvey, "// will 
 " nevertheUss prevail; nud the mt) flirt, pxaspn-afed hi/ hitter 
 '* contention and mutudl passion, will eithir had to a dissolution of 
 •' the Union or deprive it of that harmnnij which alone can maJie 
 " the Union desirable. If will lead to the formation of a sectional 
 " and Xorthern party which will sooner or later fake permanent 
 " and exclusive possession of the Qovernmenty 
 
 To meet the difficulties of the situation he introduced reso- 
 lutions to the following effect: 
 
 1. That California be admitted with her free State Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 2. That Congress (inasmuch as slavery was not likely to 
 be introduced into the territories acquired from Mexico) 
 should provide territorial governments for New Mexico and 
 I'taii without any restriction as to slavery. Slavery in other 
 words, was nominally to have a chance to get, where it was 
 clear it would not go. 
 
 3 and 4. That a boundary line between New Mexico and 
 Texas be fixed, giving Texas a little only of the New Mexican 
 territory claimed by her, and paying Texas a certain sum of 
 money for the discharge of her public debt, for which during 
 her independent existence her customs revenue had been 
 pledged, 
 
 5 and G. That it was inexpedient to abolish slavery in the 
 District of Columbia, but the slave trade in the district was to 
 be abolished. 
 
35 
 
 7. That a more effectual fugitive slave law should be 
 enacted, 
 
 8. That Congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct the 
 trade in slaves between the slaveholding States. 
 
 A veteran Senator knowing his part to perfection, be pro- 
 ceeded to perform it with absolute fearlessness. He was 
 studiously careful to omit no courtesies that the occasion sug- 
 gested, in acknowledgment of the deference extended to him 
 on many sides, while he shook off " lihi a dew droj) from the 
 lion^s mane," every attack which his enemies aimed at him. 
 Whoever will read the official record, as it is available in the 
 Congressional Globe, will find his admiration of Clay aroused 
 to the highest pitch. 
 
 When, February 20, 1850, the special order in the Senate 
 was reference of the message of the President to transmit the 
 constitution of California, and Mr. Clay was assailed in the 
 debate, he said : 
 
 " But, sir, I desire the sympathy of no man — the forbear- 
 ' ance of no man ; I desire to escape from no responsibility 
 ' of my public conduct on account of my age, or for any 
 ' other cause. I ask for none. I am in a peculiar situation, 
 ' Mr. President, if you will allow me to say so — without any 
 ' earthly object of ambition before me ; standing, as it were 
 ' upon the brink of eternity ; separated to a great extent from 
 ' all the earthly ties which connect a mortal with his being 
 ' during this transitory state. I am here expecting soon to go 
 ' hence, and owing no responsibility but that which I owe to 
 ' my own conscience and to God. Ready to express my 
 ' opinions upon all and every subject, I am determined to do 
 ' so and no imputation, no threat, no menace, no application 
 ' of awe or terror to me, will be availing in restraining me 
 ' from expressing them. None, none whatever." 
 
 The resolutions were referred to a grand committee of 
 thirteen, of which Mr. Clay was made chairman. As he 
 wanted, at first, one vote to elect him, that vote was given by 
 Daniel Webster. Later on Webster added his tribute of praise 
 of Clay's abilities as he witnessed the marvelous exhibition 
 of them in the debate. The resolutions of the committee 
 were reported in the shape of bills to the Senate. The re- 
 port of Mr. Clay contained also a provision that any new 
 
3G 
 
 State to be formed out of the territory of Texas slioukl wlieu 
 fit to be admitted be received with or without slavery as its 
 people mipht determine. He supported his plan of adjust- 
 ment for peace and the Union in a speech characterized in 
 open Senate by Senator Benton as a frank, manly, noble and 
 threat speech. It occupied two days, and bron<;ht people from 
 many parts of the United States, near and distant to Wash- 
 in{?ton, to hear him. The jiolitical crisis filled everybody 
 with apprehension, and imparted such interest to the pro-, 
 ceedings as to make them frecjuently dramatic, and so as to 
 leave a lasting impress upon the history of the times. 
 
 Owing to the crowd there was much confusion in the 
 lobbies, and the avenues leading to the Senate Chamber. 
 The floor and ante-rooms were also packed. It became 
 necessary to close the approaches to the galleries and Sen- 
 ate Chamber and to call again and again for order. Other 
 senators attentive to the imposing scene, turned to Mr. 
 Clay with every mark of reverence. When he ro.se there 
 was an outburst of entiiusiasm. The multitude outside took 
 up the shout, and rent the air with cheers, so that the 
 senator from Kentucky could with difliculty be heard. He 
 complained of the weight of years and of liis waning 
 strength, luit declined repeated suggestions to adjourn for his 
 relief. He began in feeble voice, but little by little recovered 
 himself. The intense love of country witli which his 
 address glowed, and the transcendent power of his action, 
 strangely agitated with many emotions, the hearts of all 
 who were present, and obtained for him perfect mastery 
 over the assemblage before him. He swayed it at will and 
 left it enraptured. Throughout the debate on the compromise 
 measures, it was found impracticable to repress the applause 
 which greeted the sallies of his impassioned oratory. In every 
 part of the Republic all that he said was eagerly waited for, 
 and published and read, with consuming interest and excite- 
 ment, in private and public places, by thousands of sympa- 
 thetic and grateful fellow-countrymen, who joined in lauding 
 his patriotism and eloquence to the skies. 
 
 He treated the United States rightfully as a nation having a 
 great destiny to fulfill. He regarded it as a government de- 
 signed to be perpetual, capable of attaining the objects for 
 which it was created, by the mejins which are necessary for 
 
37 
 
 their attainment, and havinsj by the Constitution the powers 
 required to defend itself against domestic as well as foreign 
 enemies. He declared that war and a dissolution of the 
 Union were identical and inseparable, and that the vast 
 population upon the head waters of the Mississippi would 
 never consent that the mouth of the river should be held 
 subject to the power of any foreign State whatever. He 
 besought gentlemen whether from the South or North, by 
 all they held dear in this world ; by all their love of liberty ; 
 by all their veneration for their ancestors ; by all their regard 
 for posterity ; by all their gratitude to God, who had be- 
 stowed on them such unnumbered blessings ; by all the duties 
 they owed to mankind, and all the duties they owed them- 
 selves, to pause at the edge of the precipice before the fear- 
 ful and disastrous leap was taken into the yawning abyss 
 below. As the best blessing which Heaven could bestow 
 on himself, he implored it, that if the direful event of the 
 dissolution of the Union should happen, he might not sur- 
 vive to witness the heart-rending spectacle. 
 
 " If unhappily " said he, " we should be involved in Civil 
 " war between the two parts of this Confederacy, in which 
 " the effort upon the one side should be to restrain the intro- 
 " duction of slavery into the new territories, and upon the 
 " other side to force its introduction there, ivJiat a spectacle 
 " should tve present to the astonishment of manJcind, in an effort 
 ** not to propagate rights but — I must say it, though I trust it 
 " ivill he understood to he said ivith no design to excite feeling — 
 " a ivar to propagate wrongs in the territories thus ac<pdred 
 " from Mexico. It ivould he a war in which tve should have no 
 *' sijmpathi), no good wishes, in which all manldnd ivould he 
 " against us, and in which our own history would he against us/^ 
 
 Mr. Calhoun contended, on the contrary, that it was the 
 duty of the South to force the issue on the North. Greeley 
 pronounces him the truest and ablest exponent the country 
 has known of the political creed antagonist to that of Mr. 
 Clay. " We are stronger now " (Mr. Calhoun urged), '' than 
 we shall be hereafter, politically and morally. Unless we 
 bring on the issue delay will be dangerous indeed. It is 
 the true policy of those ivho seek our destruction.^^ Extraor- 
 dinary man ! Genius of the delusive and calamitous theories 
 
38 
 
 over which the country was to be drencluHl in blood ! It is 
 not difficult, at this distance of time, to see, that viewed 
 from his stand point, the judgment here expressed by him 
 was correct. Mr. Calhoun was too ill to address the Senate 
 during the debate, in question, on the compromise measures 
 of 1850. The fact is his end was very near. His speech 
 was read by Senator Mason, of Virginia, in the midst of 
 profound silence on the 4th of March. There followed on the 
 7th of March the celebrated address of Mr. Webster of that 
 date. Mr. Calhoun was present. He died March 31, 1850. 
 Writing about him years afterwards when he had become an 
 historical character, Benton observed that his reply to Clay 
 on the subject of the independent treasury, in 1838, recalled 
 to him the nuisterpiece of oratory by Demosthenes. On the 
 occasion, April 1, 1850, of the announcement in the Senate 
 of Mr. Calhoun's decease, Mr. Web.ster said he thought that 
 there was not one of the Senators who listened to his last ad- 
 dress in the body, who did not feel that he might imagine 
 that they saw before them a Senator of Rome while Rome 
 survived. 
 
 Mr. Clay made his closing speech some six months after 
 the introduction of his resolutions. He declared it to be his 
 belief, from the bottom of his soul, that the compromise 
 would prove the reunion of the Union. It was the dove of 
 peace, which, taking its aerial Hight from the dome of the 
 Capitol, would carry the glad tidings of assured peace and 
 restored harmony to the most remote extremities of our 
 distracted land. He appealed to Senators to discard all 
 resentment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal 
 desires, and forgetting popular fears, from whatever quarter 
 they might spring, to think alone of their Cod, their country, 
 their consciences and the American Union. 
 
 Referring to Senator Mason, he said: '* Here is my friend 
 " from Virginia of whom I have never been without hopes. 
 ' ' I have thought of the revolutionary blood of George Mason 
 " which flows in his veins — of the blood of his own father — 
 " of his own accomplished father — my cherished friend for 
 " many years. Can he, knowing as I think he must know, 
 " the wishes of the people of his own State ; can he, with the 
 " knowledge he possesses of the public sentiment there, and 
 
39 
 
 " of the high obligation east upon him by his noble ancestry, 
 " can he hazard Virginia's greatest and most glorious work— 
 " that worli at least, which she, perhaps more than any other 
 " State, contributed her moral and political power to erect? 
 " Can he put at hazard this noble Union with all its beneficial 
 " effects and consequences, in the pursuit of abstractions and 
 "metaphysical theories— objects unattainable, or worthless 
 "if attained— while that honor of our own common native 
 " State, which I reverence and respect w4th as much devotion 
 " as he does, while the honor of that State, and the honor of 
 " the South are preserved unimpaired by this measure? 
 
 " I appeal, sir, to the Senators from Rhode Island and 
 " from Delaware, my little friends, which have stood by me, 
 " and by which I have stood in all the vicissitudes of my 
 " political life; two glorious patriotic little States, which, if 
 " there is to be a breaking up of the waters of this Union , 
 " will be swallowed up in the common deluge, and left 
 " without support. Will they hazard that Union, which is 
 " their strength, their power and their greatness! 
 
 " Let such an event as I have alluded to occur, and where 
 " will be the sovereign power of Delaware and Rhode 
 " Island? If this Union shall become separated, new unions, 
 " new confederacies will arise. And with respect to this— 
 " if there be any — I hope there is no one in the Seuate 
 " before whose imagination is flitting the idea of a great 
 " Southern Confederacy to take possession of the Balize aud 
 " the mouth of the Mississippi, I say in my place never ! 
 " Never! Never will we who occupy the broad waters of 
 " the Mississippi and its upper tributaries consent that any 
 " foreign flag shall float at the Balize or upon the turrets of 
 " the Crescent City— Never— Never ! " 
 
 Senator Barnwell, of South Carolina, having complained 
 that expressions had been used by the Senator from Kentucky 
 that were not a little disrespectful to a friend of his, Mr. 
 
 Clay replied : 
 
 " Mr. President, I said nothing with respect to the character 
 " of Mr. Rhett, for I might as well name him. I know him 
 " personally and have some respect for him. But if he pro- 
 " nounced the sentiment attributed to liim of raising the 
 " standard of Disunion, and of resistance to the common 
 
40 
 
 " irovernineiit, wliatever he has been, if he follows up that 
 " declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor, 
 " and 1 hope he will meet the fate of a traitor." 
 
 Senator Barnwell having' brought forward and defended 
 the attitude and spirit of the State of South Carolina, Mr. 
 Clay resumed : 
 
 ^ •' With regard to South Carolina and the spirit of her 
 " people. I have said nothing. I have a respect for her; but 
 " 1 must say, with entire truth, that my respect for her is that 
 '^inspired by her ancient and revolutionary character, and not 
 •* so much for her modern character. But spirited as she is, 
 " spirited as she may suppose herself to be, competent as she 
 " may suppose hferself to wield her separate power against the 
 " ]iower of this L'nion, I will tell her, and I will tell the Senator 
 " himself that there areasbrave, as dauntless, as gallant men 
 *' and as devoted patriots, in my opinion, in every other 
 " State, as are to be found in the State of South Carolina 
 " lierself ; and if, in any unjust cause, South Carolina or 
 " any other State should hoist the flag of disunion and rebel- 
 " lion, thou.sands, tens of thousands of Kentuckians would 
 " tiock to the standard of their country to dissipate and 
 " repress their rebellion. These are my sentiments — make 
 " the most of them." 
 
 Again. " If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of 
 " resistance. I will never fight under that banner. I owe a 
 " ))arani(>unt allegiance to the Union, a subordinate one to 
 " my State. When my State is right I will share her for- 
 " tune, but if she summons me to the battlefield, or to sup- 
 " port her in any cause which is unjust, against the Union, 
 " never, never, will I engage with her in such a cause." 
 
 The Compromise bill was familiarly known in the history 
 of the day by the name of the (hnnibus Bill, given it by those 
 who were opposed to it, being, as they asserted, a com- 
 V)iuation of things wholly dissimilar iu one measure and a 
 kind of bargain and barter discreditable to the country. 
 During the discussion amendments were repeatedly offered 
 and voted upon. August 1, 1850, the Senate reached a final 
 vote and the bill before it was read a third time and passed. 
 But in the shape to which it had been reduced in the course 
 of legislation, it provided 07ihj for a territorial government in 
 
41 
 
 Utah. Thus it happened, that the Compromise measures 
 reported for the committee of thirteen by Mr. Clay were lost. 
 On the same day he said : 
 
 ' ' I stand here in my place meaning to be unawed by 
 <' any threats whether they come from individuals or from 
 " 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 individuals or by States. But after all 
 '•^ that has occurred, if any one State, or a portion of the peo- 
 " pie of any State choose to place themselves in military 
 " array against the government of the Union, I am for trying 
 " the strength of the government." 
 
 He proceeded * * * '< 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 
 *' country, for the support of the general authority, and for 
 " the maintenance of the powers of this Union." 
 
 When he was reproached by a Southern Senator for being 
 *' a Southerner disloyal to the South, he answered ; " I know 
 '^ no South— no North, no East, no West." Again he said: 
 " I may be asked, as I have been asked, when I am for the 
 "dissolution of the Union. I answer: Never— Never— 
 « ' Never ! ' ' 
 
 Bad feeling was rife in the Senate and ran high. Hard 
 words were exchanged, and bitter taunts and reproaches 
 bandied from Senator to Senator. The effect was to inflame 
 the extremists on both sides to exasperation. The temper of 
 those of the North was absolutely unyielding, while the dis- 
 position of the Southern men of the same order was undoubt- 
 edly to fight. Anxiety and alarm filled the air. There were 
 clashes between Clay and other Senators. These threatened 
 to break out into civil war. They filled many with alarm, and 
 made others stand aghast. It is my belief that no one ever 
 spoke more eloquently than Clay did in these episodes of the 
 great debate which, during the first session of the 31st 
 Congress, A. D., 1850, shook the capitol and thundered over 
 the country. Enfeebled by the approaches of illness and 
 bowed beneath the burthen of age, for he was now an old 
 
4'J 
 
 man, he added fresh lustre to the fame won by him in his 
 earlier efforts, and took rank as the Prince of the Senate. 
 In this stormy period of our history he appeared just as he is 
 pictured in the verse of Prentice : 
 
 " With voice and mien of stern control, 
 
 " He Ptood anionij the great and proud. 
 
 '* And words of tire burst from his soul, 
 
 " Like lightning from the tempest cloud. 
 
 '• His high and deathless themes were crowned 
 
 •• With glory of his genius born 
 
 •• .•Vnd gloom and ruin darkly frowned 
 
 •' Where fell his bolts of wrath and scorn I" 
 
 Auf,'ust 2, 1.S.30, disappointed, exhau.sted and broken in 
 heultii he went to Newport to recover. Au^'ust 6, a bill 
 proposing a boundary to Texas, cutting down New Mex- 
 ico somewhat more than Mr. Clay had designed passed 
 the Senate and gave Texas $10,000,000. Next was passed 
 a bill to admit California as a free State. August 1"), 
 the bill to establish a territorial government in New 
 Mexico was passed, jiroviding that New Mexico when it 
 came in as a State, might do so with or without slavery, as 
 her constitution might determine, and August li9 the fugitive 
 slave law passed. When, in the last week in August, Mr. 
 Clay returned to Washington his compromise measures — ex- 
 cept the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Colum- 
 bia — liad all passed. The bill abolishing the slave trade in 
 the District of Columbia passed the Senate, September IG, 
 1850. Mr. Clay not only advocated the bill, but profited by 
 the opportunity of the debate to state his belief that slavery 
 would pass away in the District, and to declare that he icas very 
 glad of it. September 30 Congress adjourned, and Mr. Clay, 
 much exhausted, sought the repose of home. He had once 
 more saved the country from civil war. Daniel Webster, 
 writing to a friend and telling him of the crushing weight of 
 anxiety and responsibility with which he had been oppressed, 
 now announced the return of public confidence and order. He 
 said : "It is a day of rejoicing here such as I never witnessed. 
 •' The face of everything is changed. You would suppose 
 *' nobody had ever thought of disunion." 
 
 Both political parties proceeded to adopt the compromise 
 measures as the foundation of their policy. The passage of 
 
43 
 
 the Kansas-Nebraska act, four years later A. D. 1854, era- 
 bodying as it did the repeal of the Missouri compromise, 
 when the career of Mr. CUay had been closed by death, 
 helped to undo the labors of his life, and opened the way tor 
 the revolution which plunged the country into the greatest 
 civil war of modern times. 
 
 After the enactment of the compromise acts Mr. Clay con- 
 tinued to exert his influence for Union and harmony 
 He spoke in Congress, at the last session at which he was 
 active, for the taking up the tariff of 1846, and for a river 
 and harbor bill appropriating $2,500,000, and then sought 
 relief in vain in the climate of Cuba for his broken health. 
 When the session of the Thirty second Congress drew near 
 its close he went to Washington to take part in it, but was 
 never strong enough to go to the Senate Chamber. A dying 
 man he spoke in his sick room to Kossuth, the Governor of 
 revolutionary Hungary, who sought to enlist the government 
 and people of the United States in the cause of his country, 
 against the effort, and solemnly warned the people of Amer- 
 ica, for the cause of liberty, to avoid the distant wars of Europe, 
 and to adhere to our own wise and pacific system. He died June 
 29, 1852, in the city of Washington, in the seventy-sixth year 
 of his age. The national bereavement found expression in 
 the wail of sorrow which overspread the land on the an- 
 nouncement of his decease. He was mourned everywhere as 
 a statesman and patriot, the benefactor of a grateful people. 
 In the heart of the Blue Grass Region, close to his home at 
 Ashland, in the beautiful cemetery at Lexington, amidst the 
 glories of the costly summer, where nature is untreasured of 
 her riches, his earthly remains were, according to his cherished 
 wish, laid under the green sod of Kentucky to rest with those 
 of her gallant and patriotic sons. 
 
 Time fails me to offer anything here except briefest ref- 
 erence to the tributes which men of different political 
 parties proceeded to pay to his memory. I give but very 
 limited examples of these, and indicate the character of 
 them rather than undertake to quote literally from them. 
 John C. Breckenridge, a Representative in the House, who 
 had suceeded to the Ashland District so long represented by 
 Mr. Clay, rising to perform the melancholy duty of anuounc- 
 
44 
 
 iner the death of the latter, declared that amids^t the p:eneral 
 gloom the Capitol itself looked desolate as if the genius of 
 the place had departed. He said as a leader in a deliberative 
 body Mr. Clay had no equal in America. In him intellect, 
 person, eloquence and courage, united to form a character fit 
 to command. He would not attempt in speaking of a loss 
 wiiicli was national, to describe the burst of griff with which 
 Kentucky would receive the tidings. The attempt would be 
 vain to depict the gloom that would cover her people when 
 they would know that the pillar of fire had been removed, 
 which has guided their footsteps from the life af a genera- 
 tion. Kichard .1. Bowie, a Representative from the State of 
 Maryland, distinguished Clay as the advocate of freedom in 
 both hemispheres. He said that the United States mourned 
 a counsellor of deepest wisdom and purest p\irpose, mankind 
 the advocate of human rights and constitutional liberty. 
 R. M. T. Hunter, Senator in Congress from the State of 
 Virginia, said, that Clay had beyond any other man he ever 
 knew, the mesmeric touch of the orator, the rare art of trans- 
 ferring his impulses to others. Thoughts, feelings and emo- 
 tions, came from the ready mould of his genius, radiant and 
 glowing, and communicated their own warmth to every heart 
 which received them. His, too, was the power of wielding the 
 higher and intenser forms of passion with a majesty and ease 
 which none but the greatest masters of the human heart can 
 employ. William H. Seward, Senator from the State of New 
 York, said, that the people of the country had unanimously 
 acknowledged Mr. Clay as the greatest, the most faithful, and 
 the most reliable of their statesmen. Tlie Senator went on to 
 declare, that Clay had converted the Senate from a negative 
 position into the active ruling power of the Republic. To 
 the foregoing I add what was said by Charles J. Faulkner, 
 a Representative in the House from the State of Virginia. He 
 justly claimed, that in the whole character of Mr. Clay, there 
 is nothing to be found not essentially American. His coun- 
 try — its institutions — its interest — its d estiny form the ex- 
 clusive topics of his speeches, which have all the ardor and 
 intensity, the earnestness, the cogency, the vehemency of 
 style, and the burning patriotism of the great Athenian 
 0-ator. 
 
45 
 
 Chief Justice Marshall regarded Mr. Clay as second to no 
 lawyer in the country. Justice Story thonght he was a jurist 
 of extensive attainments and profound ability. President 
 Madison considered his name in connection with the highest 
 military command when the war of 1812 broke out, and was 
 dissuaded from his purpose on the ground only that Clay's 
 services were indispensable in Congress. Madison offered 
 him the appointment of Minister to Russia, and afterwards 
 that of Secretary of War. President Monroe also tendered 
 him the office of Secretary of War, and afterwards the mis- 
 sion to England. President John Quincy Adams offered him 
 a seat on the bench as Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. President Harrison tendered him the depart- 
 ment of State, which on his refusal went to Webster. 
 
 Had it been possible for him to have held all the offices 
 which I have named, they could not have added to his dis- 
 tinction. What Mr. Adams said of his course as Secretary 
 of State may be appropriately spoken of the services he ren- 
 dered in every public station he actually did fill. To have 
 secured the praise of John Quincy Acjams is, of itself, the 
 highest honor. Said Mr. Adams : "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 dis- 
 " charged its duties. As to my motives in tendering him 
 " the Department of State when I did, let the man who ques- 
 " tions them come forward. Let him look around among the ' 
 " statesmen and legislators of the nation, and of that day. 
 " Let him then select and name the man whom, by his pre- 
 -eminent talents, by his splendid services, by his ardent 
 "patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, by his fervid 
 " eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, 
 " by his long experience in the affairs of the Union, foreign 
 " and domestic, a President of the United States, intent only 
 " on the honor and welfare of his country ought to have pre- 
 
 " f erred to Henry Clay." 
 
 He was defeated for the Presidency when Mr. Adams 
 reached it. When the election devolved upon the House of 
 Representatives, Mr. Adams was chosen President over 
 General Jackson, by the action of Mr. Clay. His sup- 
 
40 
 
 ])orters were routed by Geueral Jackson iu the cainpaij^u 
 of 1S32, and owing to the luacliinations of the Demo- 
 crats, and the vote of tlie Liberty Party, he.lost atraiii in 
 1844, when James K. Polk was elected. He was deprived 
 by political legerdemain of the nomination when William U. 
 Harrison received it in 1840, and when Clay's was the largest 
 following in the Whig convention; while iu 1848, by the 
 abandonment of some who owed him everything that public 
 life had bestowed, he was set aside for General Taylor, who 
 was virtually without a historv as a party man. He met the 
 vicissitudes of his public life with a degree of fortitude that 
 was sometimes astonishing, and remained to the end the 
 acknowledged leader of the Whig party. He stood loyally 
 by his chief when Mr. Adams himself suffered defeat at the 
 hands of General Jackson in l"<2s. When Harrison was 
 unjustly preferred to him, he declared his intention to sup- 
 port him notwithstanding. His sentiment, repeatedly in- 
 sisted on, was, that a public man should be prepared to sac- 
 rifice his individual interests for the general good. He declared 
 that he would rather be right than be President. The result 
 of the election in 1844 fell like a heavy stroke of affliction 
 upon a great part of the country, but he consoled himself 
 with the proud reflection that he had received the support of 
 men of honor everywhere and of the chivalrous and patriotic 
 throughout the land. Others bowed low over the calamities 
 which overlook the Whig party in the administration of 
 Tyler and over the errors of policy into which the party fell 
 afterwards. He, true to himself as few only know how to be, 
 gathered up his jjowers for further devoted endeavor. 
 " Holding the principle," he said, "that a citizen, so long 
 " as a single pulsation remains, is under an obligation to 
 " exert his utmost services in the service of his country, 
 " whether iu a public or private station, ray friends may rest 
 " assured that iu either condition I shall stand erect, with a 
 '• spirit uncouquered while life endures ready to second their 
 " exertions iu the cause of Union aud Liberty." Admirable 
 and inspiring words! No wonder that Daniel Webster, 
 who understood from sympathy and the associations of many 
 years the strength of purpose and devotion which animated 
 him, appealed to him at one time when he had withdrawn from 
 
47 
 
 public life, to leave his retirement at Ashland, and come once 
 more to the rescue. Webster wrote : " It would be infinite 
 '' gratification to me to have your aid, or rather your lead. 
 " I know of nothing so likely to be useful. Everything val- 
 " uable in the government is to be fought for, and we need 
 '' vour arm in the fight." 
 
 Like powers of oratory with those of Mr. Clay have 
 not been witnessed in the history of our country. They made 
 him unquestionably the congressional leader of his time. He 
 was the most magnetic speaker in public life and a popular 
 orator of amazing powers. He could touch the finest emotions 
 and sensibilities and play on them at will. He could arouse 
 the strongest passions and stir them into tempests. He was 
 followed with rapt attention. Great multitudes when he 
 addressed them fixed their " white-upturned wondering eyes " 
 on him, and either shed tears, or yielded to outbursts of re- 
 joicing or of enthusiasm according to the mood he chose to 
 excite. 
 
 His personal popularity exceeded, as I am well persuaded, 
 that of any statesman who has appeared in America since 
 the time of Washington. He had a host of devoted friends 
 here in New Orleans, where he was seen often on the 
 streets ot the city. His affections were warm and true. 
 His memory for faces was excellent. He was indeed, noted 
 for recalling at once all who had been presented to him, and 
 knew admirably how to leave with those who had pleased him, 
 an impression of unfading graciousness. He was " to those 
 men that sonfjht him sweet as summer. ^^ His constitution of 
 mind, as well as of person, fitted him particularly for the 
 part of the orator, which in a free government is necessarily 
 the most distinguished. He was tall and slender, of com- 
 manding and graceful figure, as he is correctly represented in 
 the bronze statue before us. The gestures he employed in 
 speaking were easy and natural. His'ardent and hopeful tem- 
 perament irradiated every feature. His dauntless spirit 
 beamed in the kindling gaze of hisclear although rather small 
 gray eyes. While he was by no means a handsome man, his 
 countenance was an open one, and was expressive and varia- 
 ble. Bis forehead was high and broad, tlis mouth was 
 large. His voice fell upon the ear with the harmony of en- 
 ■chanting strains of music. 
 
48 
 
 Tliomas J. Marshall, of Kentucky, one of the most distin- 
 guished public speakers of his day, confident as he declared 
 himself of the superior merit of his contention, on one 
 occasion, declined to answer Mr. Clay until the magical spell 
 wrought l»y the effort of the latter had subsided. Kichard 
 H. Menifee whose genius raised in him the proud ambition 
 to surpass Clay in forensic discussion, fell untimely in the 
 flower of early manhood, stricken by mortal malady in the 
 very act of speaking for which he had wound up all his 
 powers of body and mind, until they gave way beneath the 
 strain. The effect produced by the peroration in the great ar- 
 gument of Clay on internal improvements in Congress has been 
 compared by Prentice to the thrill of victori/ in the reins. 
 Jeremiah Clemens, Senator from the Stflte of Alal)ama, on 
 the announcement, A])ril 1, is.jO, in the Senate, of the death 
 of John C. Calhoun, when Senators Butler, Clay, Webster 
 and Rusk spoke, declared that Clay was the world's greatest 
 living orator. Pierre Soule, twice Senator in Congress from 
 Louisiana, himself a brilliant orator, giving me a scene pre- 
 sented by the Senate of the United States when the compro- 
 mise measurse of ISjO were under discussion said, Mr. Clay 
 seemed to hold a ichip of scorpions in his hand, with which he 
 scourged liis enemies and compelled his followers into the 
 ranks. The famous diary of John Quiucy Adams treating 
 the subject of the great debate between Clay and Calhoun 
 upon the dissolution of the alliance between the latter states- 
 man and Clay says: " Clay had manifestly the advantage in 
 " the debate. The truth and the victorv were with Clav, who 
 ** spoke of the South Carolina nullification with such insulting 
 " contempt that it brought out Preston who complained of it 
 ** bitterly. Preston's countenance was a portraiture of agon- 
 " izing anguish." 
 
 The leading and paramount object of the public life of 
 Clay was declared by himself to be the preservation of the 
 Union, or of the peace of our common country under the 
 Constitution. It was his unceasing endeavor to promote the 
 more perfect union contemplated by the fathers in the begin- 
 ning. He could have had no wiser or grander public policy 
 to guide him. (xatheriug years have accumulated. Almost 
 half a century has elapsed since he closed his high career. 
 
49 
 
 Throughout the South as well as the North, it is now seen, 
 not ouly that his knowledge of American character was pro- 
 found, but also that there was no other fortunate issue for 
 the people of the United States from their civil war, than 
 that which preserved for them one and the same great 
 nationality. 
 
 The disposition of the mind of Mr. Clay carried him habitu- 
 ally to the right side. Personal considerations, had no weight 
 with him in comparision with public duty. He was a stranger 
 to the prejudices of sectionalism. The love of liberty burned 
 in his breast like a holy flame ! He carried with him and was 
 contantly animated by the true spirit of the advice of Car- 
 dinal Wolsey to Cromwell as being essential to the usefulness 
 and honor of a public servant, where Shakspere makes 
 Wolsey say : 
 
 " Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
 " To silence envious tongues : be just, and fear not : 
 " Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy country's, 
 "Thy God's, and truth's." 
 
 "How beautiful," says the prophet (Isaiah, clii, v. 7) 
 " upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
 " tidings, that publisheth peace." The inspired injunction 
 of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews (ch. X, v. 13) was, " to 
 follow peace with all men." The General Epistle of James 
 (ch. HI, V. 17) declares that " the wisdom that is from 
 above is first pure, then peaceable." The message sent from 
 God Himself by His angel and a multitude of the heavenly 
 host, (St. Luke, ch. II, v. 14) freighted with the best hopes 
 that our fallen race has been allowed to cherish, is "peace 
 and good will to men." 
 
 If there is difficulty in understanding what the bless- 
 ings of peace really signify, it can not be here in New 
 Orleans, where there are still so many whose sight has 
 been seared by the ravages of civil war. I will not call 
 the black catalogue of those ravages, nor do I mean to 
 refer to the losses and waste, to the violence, the blood- 
 shed and crimes, and to the ruin and desolation of that 
 appalling fratricidal struggle, except to award to Henry Clay 
 the wonderful credit which is his due, of having shown far 
 beyond any other public man of the period, the wisdom 
 
50 
 
 and conrajje to postpone it, nnd of liaviiii; striven most de- 
 votedly of all. to avert it alto«rether. He nnderstood perfectly 
 the folly and n)adness of the policy of secession. He foretold. 
 with prophetic insij;ht into tlic American disposition and 
 destiny, the awful consequences which the baneful attemi)t to 
 secede would brin^ with it. 
 
 In the arrangements of Divine Providence differences lion- 
 orably settled lead to clo.ser friendships. History is full of 
 proofs of the assertion. Nationalities arc not destroyed by 
 civil stru^'^Mes, but rather ccnuMited by them, and at the close 
 inviiroratcd by the vicissitudes they are condemned to underfjo. 
 In England, the contest for the throne cau.sed the War of the 
 Roses. Imt the war ended with the union of I bury VII as the 
 representative of the House <»f Lancaster, and Elizabeth of 
 York. The Wed Ko.se was blended with the White. The thirty 
 years religious war which swept over and desolated Germany, 
 was concluded by the treaty of WestplmliM, recognizing for- 
 mally, at least, principles of religious toleration. The war in 
 England between the Hou.se of Stuart and the Roundheads, 
 in the end settled most firndy the liberties of the British 
 Kealm, and seated William and .Mary upon the throne of 
 a Constitutional Monarchy. In the stormy period of 
 French history. La Vendee was visited by lire and the sword, 
 but rose from its ashes and contributed to the growth and 
 con.solidation of the French Enipire. Our own great country 
 is destined to add, or rather has already added a fresh ex- 
 ample to those T have just cited; and Henry Clay, it is not 
 to be doubted, felt that this would be the case. He was 
 deeply imbued with the belief that the preservation of the 
 Union as the sole guaranty of American rights, interests, liber- 
 ties and honor, was worth every sacrifice. 
 
 Lord Chatham declared that he had read Thucydides and 
 studied and admired the master states of the world. That 
 for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity and wisdom of 
 conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circum- 
 stances, no nation or body of men could stand in preference 
 to the Congress at Philadelphia; and Senator Benton, taking 
 up his observation, has added that if Chatham had lived to 
 see a later day, and the men of Benton's time making them- 
 selves exceptions to the maxims ot the world and finishing the 
 
51 
 
 Revolution, and all with the same wisdom, justice and mod- 
 eration and decorum with which they be^an it, even his lofty 
 genius would have recoiled from the task of doing them 
 justice. 
 
 Let us, fellow-eitizens, in our own time and in our sev- 
 eral places, do our parts also. Let us, in closing the cere- 
 monies of this day, render thanks publicly to Heaven, not 
 only for the example of the fathers and for that of the suc- 
 ceeding generation which took up their work and carried it 
 worthily forward, but let us do so in particular, on the pres- 
 ent occasion, for the life and services of Henry Clay as a 
 patriot, statesman and orator, and as an illustrious man of 
 splendid gifts and glorious memory, the champion of freedom 
 and of American Union. Realizing fully that the extinction 
 of slavery was the removal of a great evil from the Republic, 
 and rejoicing that there is at this time no impediment to its 
 progress, let us welcome, with proud and grateful hearts, 
 the prospect before our dearest country, of being first in the 
 arts and sciences, as well as in wealth and power, of the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
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