The Influence of Henry Clay 
 upon Abraham Lincoln 
 
 EDGAR DeWITT JONES 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/influenceofhenryOOjone 
 
The Influence of 
 
 HENRY CLAY 
 
 upon 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
HENRY CLAY 
 
 From a rare engrafting in the collection of 
 William H. Townsend 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF 
 
 HENRY CLAY 
 
 UPON 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 by 
 EDGAR DeWITT JONES 
 
 Introduction by 
 William H. Townsend 
 
 Lexington, Kentucky 
 
 The Henry Clay Memorial Foundation 
 
 J 952 
 
Copyright 1952 
 HENRY CLAY MEMORIAL FOUNDATION 
 
 Lexington, Kentucky 
 
B3 
 
 To 
 Four Gentlemen of Lexington, Kentucky: 
 
 William H. Townsend 
 
 J. Winston Coleman, Jr. 
 
 Joseph C. Graves 
 
 Raymond F. McLain 
 
Introduction 
 
 Henry Clay was the idol of Abraham Lincoln's 
 youth and manhood. William H. Herndon says 
 that, during all the years of his law partnership 
 with Lincoln, he heard the senior partner praise 
 only two historical characters — Thomas Jefferson 
 and Henry Clay. When Douglas Volk made a 
 plaster cast of Lincoln's face, he told the sculptor 
 that he "almost worshiped Henry Clay." In Jan- 
 uary, 1 86 1, the President-elect shut himself up 
 in a dusty, vacant room over his brother-in-law's 
 dry goods store to write his Inaugural Address 
 and one of the four books he brought with 
 him for reference was Clay's great Compromise 
 speech of 1850. 
 
 Many persons know a great deal about Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. Others know much about Henry 
 Clay. However, the author of this brochure, Dr. 
 Edgar DeWitt Jones, is the only person known 
 to me who is an outstanding authority on both 
 Lincoln and Clay. 
 
 Dr. Jones' opportunity to learn about Lincoln 
 first-hand came early in his ministry when he 
 was called to the pulpit of the First Christian 
 
Church at Bloomington, Illinois, one of the 
 towns on the old 8th Judicial Circuit that Lincoln 
 rode. Jesse W. Fell, Leonard Swett and Judge 
 David Davis, the three men most responsible 
 for making Lincoln president, had lived at 
 Bloomington. Owen Reeves, who had tried cases 
 with and against Lincoln; former Governor 
 "Private Joe" Fifer, who had heard the famed 
 "Lost Speech"; Jim Ewing, whose father had 
 operated the National Hotel — favorite stopping 
 place of Circuit riding lawyers in Lincoln's day 
 — and other old friends still lived there. 
 
 The fourteen years that Dr. Jones spent in 
 Bloomington literally saturated him with Lincoln 
 lore and when he moved to Detroit, he already 
 owned a sizeable library of Lincolniana. During 
 the more than a quarter century since then, the 
 interest of Dr. Jones in the "First American" 
 has never flagged. He has lectured on him, win- 
 ning the W. J. Long prize for the best Lincoln 
 sermon delivered in 1939. He has written about 
 him — brochures like "The Greatening of Lincoln" 
 and books like "Lincoln and the Preachers." He 
 is a member of the advisory and governing 
 boards of national Lincoln organizations, such 
 as the Lincoln Life Foundation and the Abraham 
 Lincoln Association. 
 
 Readers, therefore, will not be surprised to 
 hear that Edgar DeWitt Jones not infrequently 
 dreams of Lincoln. One of these dreams is so 
 
amusing that, although I have related it on other 
 occasions, it will, perhaps, bear repetition here. 
 
 Dr. Jones dreamed that he went down to his 
 bank in Detroit and requested a loan. The affable 
 Vice-President escorted him to a richly panelled, 
 plate-glassed, chrome-trimmed cubicle, which 
 modern institutions of this kind expressly reserve 
 for such transactions, and made further inquiry. 
 The Doctor mentioned a sum considerably larger 
 than any amount which he had theretofore bor- 
 rowed on his own signature alone. The banker 
 said that because of this fact, he would like to 
 have an endorser on the new note. "That is all 
 right," replied the Doctor, "whose name would 
 you like?" The banker thought for a moment 
 and then said: "Well now, how about Abraham 
 Lincoln — he appears to be a friend of yours." 
 
 Dr. Jones said that this was entirely agreeable 
 to him and he, accordingly, set out for Spring- 
 field, with the note in his pocket. It did not seem 
 long until he reached the west side of Spring- 
 field's public square and climbed a creaking 
 stairway above a rusty, battered metal sign that 
 read: "Lincoln & Herndon." Mr. Lincoln, alone 
 in his bare, dingy office at the end of the narrow 
 hallway, sat at a long pine table, looking over 
 some papers. He greeted his visitor cordially and 
 asked what he could do for him. The Doctor told 
 him and Lincoln said: "Let me see the note." 
 And then, as it was handed to him, the Doctor 
 
woke up. Now, we shall never know whether or 
 not the credit of Edgar DeWitt Jones was good 
 with Abraham Lincoln ! ! 
 
 Dr. Jones' study of Henry Clay has been 
 equally diligent and constant. He owns the larg- 
 est Clay library now in private hands. For many 
 years, his lecture on "Gallant Harry of the 
 West" has been one of the most popular lectures 
 on the public platform. His "Henry Clay — 
 America's Greatest Natural Orator" is consid- 
 ered the finest chapter in his widely read book: 
 "Lords of Speech." 
 
 In writing this brochure, Dr. Jones has not 
 only done an excellent piece of literary work, 
 but he has performed a task not hitherto under- 
 taken; a study and appraisal of the influence of 
 Henry Clay upon Abraham Lincoln which will 
 be eagerly and profitably read not only by 
 Lincolnians, but by all Americans who, in these 
 eventful and precarious days, find interest and 
 inspiration in the lives of their countrymen who 
 guided this nation through the trials and trage- 
 dies of other years. 
 
 William H. Townsend 
 Helm Place, 
 Lexington, Kentucky 
 February 12, 1952 
 
The Influence of 
 
 HENRY CLAY 
 
 upon 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 From an original photograph in the 
 collection of William H. Town send 
 
The Influence of Henry 
 Clay upon Abraham Lincoln 
 
 One hundred years ago, on June 29, 1852, 
 in the National Hotel, Washington, D. C, 
 after a long and painful illness, Henry Clay 
 finished his amazing course, in the seventy-sixth 
 year of his illustrious life. 
 
 Eighty-seven years ago, on April 15,1 865, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln breathed his last torturous breath, 
 in the Peterson residence on Tenth Street, at the 
 capital of the nation, aged fifty-six. 
 
 For the greater part of his political life Clay 
 aspired to be President, but the grand prize 
 eluded him, going, instead, to men of far less 
 fame. Lincoln, a political disciple of Clay and 
 less known at the time than either Seward or 
 Douglas, took the nomination over the one and 
 the Presidency over the other. Reelected, he had 
 scarcely entered upon his second term when the 
 bullet of an assassin struck him down. 
 
Clay's fame and popularity, which at times 
 approached idolatry, began early and lasted long. 
 Even in defeat his admirers showered him with 
 gifts and praised him to the skies. Lincoln's 
 public life began humbly, was marked at first 
 by only moderate success and shadowed by de- 
 feat. In 1803, when he was twenty-six, Clay ran 
 for the Kentucky Legislature, was elected, and 
 served three terms in all. In 1832 Lincoln ran 
 for the Illinois Legislature, and was defeated. He 
 ran again in 1834, was elected, and served four 
 terms in that capacity. Clay was in the national 
 House of Representatives for six terms. Lincoln 
 was a member of the House for one term, in the 
 Thirtieth Congress. 
 
 Lincoln entered a wider arena when he opposed 
 Douglas for the Senate and thereby greatened 
 his reputation. Then came the Presidency and 
 the purgatorial war years, during which he bore 
 with all but superhuman patience the burden of 
 State, and bowed but did not break before the 
 storms of criticism and abuse. Not until "the 
 deep damnation of his taking off" occurred did 
 there begin his swift journey to a place amid the 
 stars of fame — a fame which now fills the world. 
 
 At the time of Lincoln's birth, Clay was a 
 United States Senator from Kentucky. And when 
 Clay ran for President, in 1844, Lincoln was a 
 Presidential elector for him in Illinois and made 
 speeches in his behalf. When Clay died in 1852 
 
 8 
 
Lincoln was campaigning for General Winfield 
 Scott, the Whig candidate for President. Thus in 
 life and death the destinies of Henry Clay and 
 Abraham Lincoln were curiously intertwined. 
 
 Both Clay and Lincoln were men of sorrows 
 and acquainted with grief, and this was true 
 despite Clay's gay and debonair manner and 
 Lincoln's quaint and sometimes salty humor. 
 Death took all six of Clay's beloved daughters 
 during his lifetime, and the son who bore his 
 name, Henry Clay, Jr., fell at the battle of 
 Buena Vista, bringing crushing sorrow to Ash- 
 land. Lincoln's second son, Edward Baker, died 
 in childhood at Springfield, and William Wallace, 
 affectionately known as "Willie," the apple of 
 his father's eye, died during the tense and turbu- 
 lent years at Washington. Both men suffered 
 disappointments and bore heavy burdens. It is 
 to their glory that they bore them so bravely. 
 
 i 
 
 The family heritage and upbringing of the 
 two men provide both similarities and contrasts. 
 Each was born on a farm; Clay, in a comfortable 
 story-and-a-half frame house in Hanover county, 
 Virginia, not far from Richmond, a center of a 
 new world culture; Lincoln first glimpsed the 
 light of day in a one-room log cabin in Hardin 
 County (now LaRue), Kentucky, a sparsely set- 
 
Henry Clay's Birthplace 
 
 From an early engraving in the collection of J. Winston Coleman 
 
 tied region, and off main traveled roads. The 
 ancestry of both Clay and Lincoln was good 
 without being distinguished. The forebears of 
 each were English. 
 
 Clay's father was a Baptist preacher who had 
 inherited a farm of some four hundred acres and 
 a number of slaves. Not only so, but the Rev- 
 erend John Clay had married a well-to-do wife 
 who brought him another four hundred acre 
 farm and additional slaves. The Clays of Virginia 
 
 10 
 
were not of the "first families" of the Old 
 Dominion, yet, compared with the Lincolns of 
 Kentucky, they were literate, prosperous, and 
 blessed with influential friends. 
 
 Albeit, the life of a Baptist preacher with a 
 big family in a rural parish in the year 1777 
 was not a bed of roses. That section of Virginia 
 called "The Slashes," was rough, unfertile, and 
 recently trampled by battling armies. Luxuries 
 were unknown, living plain and hard, diversions 
 few. Clay's educational opportunities were al- 
 most as scanty as Lincoln's. The towheaded 
 youth had about three years of schooling under 
 Peter Deacon, who was irritable and liked his 
 liquor, as against Lincoln's less than one year 
 of teaching by Mentor Graham, who had a local 
 reputation for erudition, and was temperate in 
 all things. Naturally brilliant, Clay was not 
 studiously inclined; Lincoln was a student to the 
 end of his days. 
 
 Clay, destined to become a man of the hust- 
 ings and the forum, was never quite at home in 
 a library. Gerald W. Johnson, writing of Clay, 
 says "It was a rare occasion for him to open a 
 book." 1 Lincoln's love for books, especially in 
 his Indiana days, amounted to a passion; and 
 later Shakespeare cast a spell over him. While 
 
 1 . America's Silver Age, Gerald W. Johnson, Harper and Brothers, New 
 York, 1939, page 26. Mr. Johnson's book is a fascinating study of Clay 
 and his contemporaries, with "Harry of the West" getting most of the 
 limelight. 
 
 II 
 
Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace 
 
 From an original photograph - Chicago Historical Society 
 
 still in his teens Clay came to know men of 
 eminence: John Marshall, Bushrod Washington, 
 Spencer Roane, George Wythe, and other men 
 equally famous. Lincoln's years of young man- 
 hood were lonely years. Few illustrious persons 
 came his way. Rather, his was the companion- 
 ship of great phantoms. 
 
 A good stepfather, Captain Henry Watkins, was 
 a factor in the Clay saga; and a kind stepmother, 
 Sarah Bush Johnston, brought a benediction to 
 
 12 
 
the Lincoln epic. Clay got off to a running start, 
 due to influential friends of Captain Watkins in 
 Richmond; and, later, in Kentucky, highly placed 
 acquaintances boosted the fortunes of the young 
 Virginian. Lincoln emerged slowly and painfully 
 from obscurity by way of Indiana, his second 
 home, and Illinois, his last. Clay went up like a 
 rocket and stayed up. Lincoln grew like a tree 
 which contends with poor soil, battles with con- 
 trary winds — and keeps on growing. 
 
 Physically the two statesmen were fashioned 
 along the same streamlines. Each was over six 
 feet in height, loose of frame, lean of flank. The 
 cheekbones of both were high. Clay's hair, sparse 
 on top, was silvery; Lincoln's abundant and 
 unruly locks were dark and coarse. Clay's mouth 
 was huge, — "prodigious," some said. "In his 
 old days," writes Edward G. Parker in his The 
 Golden Age of American Oratory? "when the 
 men crowded around him for a shake of his 
 hand, and the women beset him for a kiss of 
 his patriarchal lips, it was remarked that his 
 capacity of gratifying this latter demand was 
 unlimited, for the ample dimensions of his kiss- 
 ing apparatus enabled him completely to rest one 
 side of it, while the other side was upon active 
 duty." Neither Clay nor Lincoln was a hand- 
 
 1. The Golden Age of American Oratory , Edward G. Parker, Whittemore, 
 Niles and Hall, Boston, 1857, page 36. This volume, which is out of 
 print and difficult to acquire, is unrivaled in the enchanting field it covers. 
 
 13 
 
some man, but both were of impressive appear- 
 ance, Clay being the more graceful in posture 
 and movement. Clay was fastidious as to his 
 attire; Lincoln indifferent to what he wore. Both 
 towered above their fellows in a crowd. Clay's 
 facial expression was usually one of mild benig- 
 nity; Lincoln's countenance was often sad, occa- 
 sionally transfigured by the friendliest of smiles. 
 
 The handwriting of both Clay and Lincoln 
 was neat and legible. As a correspondent, Clay 
 was profuse, formal, and undistinguished of 
 style. Lincoln's letters, which reveal the man, 
 were often brief, sometimes laconic, occasionally 
 of ineffable beauty. Thus, he is represented in 
 the volume entitled A Treasury of the World's 
 Great Letters by three specimens, one of which is 
 the immortal "Bixby Letter." 
 
 As a lawyer, Clay was the superior of Lincoln 
 in persuasive eloquence before a jury, and was 
 well-nigh irresistible as attorney for the defense. 
 Lincoln surpassed Clay in knowledge of the law 
 and was the more experienced in general prac- 
 tice. Clay was too much involved in politics to 
 give his best to the Law, which has been called 
 a jealous mistress. Lincoln's peak in the practice 
 of law was the decade between 1850 and i860, 
 during which his reputation at the bar reached 
 new heights. 
 
 14 
 
II 
 
 Henry Clay belongs at the apex of that pyra- 
 midical coterie of America's most gifted orators 
 in the golden age of oratory. He has been called 
 by competent critics "America's greatest natural 
 orator/' and the distinction is beyond disputa- 
 tion. He was endowed with a mellifluous voice 
 of vast range and extraordinary flexibility. It 
 was a voice which once heard could never be 
 forgotten. The last time John Randolph of 
 Roanoke, himself an orator of parts, was present 
 in the Senate Chamber, he was a sick man and 
 had to be assisted to a seat. Senator Clay, his 
 long time political foe, was speaking. "Lift me 
 up! Lift me up!" commanded his old rival, "I 
 came to hear that voice again." Not only Clay's 
 voice but his whole being was eloquent. The 
 flash of his glance; the sweep of his gestures; the 
 posture and poise of his body; even his hands 
 seemed to talk. He had a habit when in oratorical 
 action of stepping from side to side, and "every 
 little movement had a meaning of its own." 
 
 If Clay lacked the scholarship of Webster, he 
 had what Webster did not have — a charm of 
 personality and a way with him that swept mul- 
 titudes as a mighty wind sways the trees of a 
 forest. There was an air of grandeur about 
 Webster; about Clay there was the bewitching 
 aura of a prima donna. Nothing in the history 
 
 15 
 
of great public speaking in this country quite 
 parallels Henry Clay's power over an audience. 
 To claim this for Clay is not to forget the golden 
 speech of a Patrick Henry; the massive eloquence 
 of a Webster; the rollicking humor of a "Tom" 
 Corwin; the polished periods of an Edward 
 Everett; the silver tongue of a Wendell Phillips; 
 the gorgeous exuberance of an Ingersoll; or the 
 melodious fluency of a Bryan. In my student 
 days in Lexington, during the late eighteen- 
 nineties, I met an aged woman who had heard 
 Clay speak. Her wrinkled face glowed with pride 
 as she said: "Why, Sir, he looked and spoke 
 like a god." 3 
 
 Of Clay's oratory, Jo. G. Baldwin, in his Party 
 Leaders ^ first published in 1854, writes: 
 
 It has been said that the speeches and writings of 
 Webster will live long after Clay's shall have per- 
 ished. This is probably true; but it does not follow 
 from this that Webster was the greater man, or that 
 he will descend with more honor to posterity. The 
 evidence of his greatness in one province of mind 
 will be better preserved, but the greatness itself may 
 not be relatively magnified. Patrick Henry has left 
 scarcely a memorial of his genius, yet, his fame today 
 is wider, and its luster as fresh, as when he died. 
 Clay's claims to fame are not in his printed speeches. 
 They are in his measures, which are deeds, and in his 
 
 3. James Parton, whose admiration for Clay was unbridled, wrote: "Mr. 
 Clay's usefulness as a statesman was limited by his talent as an orator. 
 He relied too much on his oratory. He was never such a student as a 
 man entrusted with public business ought to be. See Famous Americans 
 of Recent Times, Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1867, pages 51 and 52. 
 
 16 
 
acts, which are monuments; and Clay's deeds will 
 outlive Webster's words. Clay projected his character 
 upon the imaginations and hearts of his generation; 
 and it was there imprinted in the strong colors of the 
 sublime and the heroic; and such an impression 
 descends through tradition upon succeeding ages. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was a public speaker of 
 remarkable force, clarity, and feeling, but he 
 was not an orator in the sense that Clay was. 
 The Kentuckian was a born orator; the Illinoisan 
 was a public speaker of note by way of much 
 study, discipline, and self-criticism. Through 
 perseverance and practice he attained to a liter- 
 ary style of rare beauty and haunting simplicity. 
 Surprising as it may seem to some, his early style 
 of public speaking tended to floridity; even, in 
 a few instances, to grandiloquence. It is possible, 
 more, it is probable, that Lincoln set out to 
 pattern his oratory in the manner of his "beau 
 ideal of a statesman," Henry Clay, but it was a 
 case of David in Saul's armor — it didn't fit. 
 Slowly there evolved the Lincolnian style, terse, 
 logical, direct, and by-and-by the lofty Biblical 
 phrasing as of the Gettysburg Address, the 
 Bixby Letter, and the Second Inaugural. 
 
 Henry Clay's speeches which moved multi- 
 tudes are disappointing in print. They are not 
 precisely cold or lifeless, but the personality of 
 the orator is missing, the fire, the charm, the 
 magic presence. Today, millions who know of 
 
 17 
 
Clay's fame as an orator have never read so 
 much as one of his speeches. By the same token, 
 millions who are unfamiliar with much of 
 Lincoln's life and works treasure his master- 
 pieces and repeat his deathless phrases the 
 nation over and beyond. Clay's is the oratory 
 of presence, of voice, of delivery. Lincoln's is 
 the oratory of light, of epigram, of verbal felicity 
 plus the prophet's vision. He lacked Clay's glori- 
 ous voice but his rather high-pitched tones were 
 pleasant to tie ear and carried far. 
 
 "To compare the oratorical output of a Lincoln 
 with that of a Clay, a Webster, or a Bryan is like 
 ranging the thin precious volume of a Rupert 
 Brooke alongside the lavish effusions of a Brown- 
 ing, a Tennyson, or a Longfellow. This son of 
 poverty, who was unacquainted with college or 
 university, won his place as a lord of language by 
 less than half a dozen speeches of such a charac- 
 ter as to set them apart in classic greatness." 4 
 
 It may be profitable to observe just here that 
 while we have had Presidents who were eloquent 
 speakers, not one of the truly great orators who 
 aspired to the Presidency was elected, to wit: 
 Webster, Clay, and Bryan. 5 
 
 4. Lincoln and the Preachers, Edgar DeWitt Jones, Harper and Brothers, 
 New York, 1948, chapter XII, page 132. 
 
 5. Of our Presidents, John Quincy Adams, Lincoln, Garfield, Benjamin 
 Harrison, and Wilson, were orators of distinction. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 
 during his Presidency, was the most effective voice on the radio. Thomas 
 Jefferson, a lord of written speech, was a poor public speaker. 
 
 18 
 
Ill 
 
 Abraham Lincoln's admiration for Henry Clay 
 was unaffectedly enthusiastic, strong, and abid- 
 ing. The Kentuckian was his exemplar in states- 
 manship and his mentor politically. The irre- 
 pressible Dennis Hanks, Lincoln's unschooled 
 and voluble cousin, had something to say on 
 this subject when, in a letter to William H. 
 Herndon, dated March 12, 1866, he wrote: "Abe 
 turned Whig in 1827, 8. Think Col. Jones made 
 him a Whig, dont know it. Most of all he 
 always loved Hen. Clay's speaches. I think this 
 was the cause mostly." Old Dennis, in his own 
 colloquial manner told the truth. Henry Clay was 
 a prime factor in making Abraham Lincoln a Whig. 
 In Lambert's Lincolnium> in listing books from 
 Lincoln's library, occurs this notation: "Item 81. 
 The Life and Speeches of Henry Clay, two vol- 
 umes in one, 8vo, original morocco, cover burnt 
 and repaired, in green morocco slip case. Phila- 
 delphia 1854." On the flyleaf is written: "This 
 book was used by Abraham Lincoln when mak- 
 ing his first great antislavery speeches, preceding 
 the memorable campaign with Douglas. He 
 quoted largely from Clay's speeches with wonder- 
 ful effect. Passages on 21 pages have been marked 
 in blue, red, or black pencil, or in ink, either by 
 Lincoln, or as having been read by Lincoln in his 
 speeches." 
 
 19 
 
Mr. Lincoln's references to Henry Clay in his 
 political speeches are numerous and always lau- 
 datory. Thus at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 
 1854, Mr. Lincoln said: "Finally, Judge Douglas 
 invokes against me the memory of Clay and 
 Webster. They were great men and men of great 
 deeds, but have I assailed them ? For what is it 
 that their lifelong enemy shall now make profit 
 by assuming to defend them against their life- 
 long friend?" 
 
 At Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856, Lin- 
 coln said: "Not that Clay hated slavery less 
 but that he loved the whole Union more." In 
 his debate with Douglas at Ottawa, August 21, 
 1858, Lincoln spoke as follows: 
 
 Henry Clay, my beau ideal of a statesman, for whom 
 I fought all my humble life — Henry Clay once said 
 of a class of men who would repress all tendencies to 
 liberty and ultimate emancipation, that they must, if 
 they would do this, go back to the era of inde- 
 pendence, and muzzle the cannon which thunders 
 its annual joyous return, they must blow out the 
 moral lights around us; they must penetrate the 
 human soul, and eradicate there the love of liberty; 
 and then, and not until then, could they perpetuate 
 slavery in this country. 
 
 And again, at Alton, October 15, 1858: 
 
 When Henry Clay says that in laying the foundations 
 of societies in our territories where it does not exist, 
 he would be opposed to the introduction of slavery 
 as an element, I insist that we have his warrant, — 
 
 20 
 
his license — for insisting upon the exclusion of that 
 element which he declared in such strong and 
 emphatic language was most hateful to him. 
 
 The published Lincoln-Douglas Debates re- 
 cord no less than forty-one references made by 
 Lincoln to Clay, his political principles, and 
 policies. In the Robert Todd Lincoln Papers, 
 opened to the public July 26, 1947, there are 
 nine letters written to Abraham Lincoln by 
 devoted followers of Henry Clay who said they 
 would support him because he was a Clay man. 
 
 Henry Clay took vast pride in the formation 
 of a set of policies which he called the "American 
 System. " In an important speech delivered on 
 this subject at Cincinnati, August 3, 1830, the 
 Senator said: 
 
 With respect to the American System, which demands 
 your undivided approbation, and in regard to which 
 you are pleased to estimate much too highly my 
 service, its great object is to secure the independence 
 of our country, to augment its wealth, and to diffuse 
 the comforts of civilization throughout society. 
 That object, it has been supposed, can be best accom- 
 plished by introducing, encouraging, and protecting 
 the arts among us. It may be called a system of real 
 reciprocity, under the operation of which one citizen, 
 or one part of the country, can exchange one descrip- 
 tion of the produce of labor, with another citizen, 
 or another part of the country, for a different descrip- 
 tion of the produce of labor. It is a system which 
 develops, improves, and perfects the capabilities of 
 our common country, and enables us to avail our- 
 
 21 
 
selves of all of the resources with which Providence 
 has blest us. To the laboring classes it is invaluable, 
 since it increases and multiplies the demands for 
 their industry, and gives them an option of employ- 
 ments. It adds power and strength to our Union by 
 new ties of interest, blending and connecting together 
 all its parts and creating an interest with each in the 
 prosperity of the whole. 
 
 A scrutiny of this, and other speeches by Mr. 
 Clay, discloses that the American System had, 
 it would appear, five points, namely: i. A High 
 Protective Tariff, 2. Internal Improvements, 3. 
 Loyal Adherence to the Constitution of the 
 United States, 4. Ardent Support of the Federal 
 Union, and 5. A Passionate Patriotism and 
 Belief in the Lofty Destiny of America. It is 
 pertinent just here to inquire what Mr. Lincoln's 
 attitude was toward this "System" devised and 
 eloquently expounded by "Harry of the West." 
 Categorically the answer is negatory. He never 
 discussed the five points in detail or alluded to 
 them seriatim in his speeches or writings. 6 
 
 On the high protective tariff issue, which was 
 the main plank in the American System, Lincoln 
 
 6. It is difficult to define Clay s political philosophy. He was not an 
 original thinker in this realm as were Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison. 
 He began as a Jeffersonian, became a Whig, and his political views at 
 times took on a Hamiltonian cast. But Clay thought better of the 
 populace than did the great Federalist. Lincoln, also a Whig, before he 
 became a Republican, freely acknowledged his debt to Jefferson. Thus 
 he said in a letter of April 6, 1858 to H. L. Pierce, and others, replying 
 to an invitation to a festival in honor of Jefferson's birthday: "The 
 principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society." 
 
 22 
 
stood with Clay. Between his election to Con- 
 gress in 1846 and taking his seat in 1847, Lincoln 
 wrote at some length on the subject, and con- 
 cluded with a paragraph in which occur these 
 words: ". . . The abandonment of the protective 
 policy by the American government must result 
 in the increase of both useless labor and idleness, 
 and so in proportion, must produce want and 
 ruin among the people. ,, 
 
 As for "Internal Improvements," the issues 
 which absorbed Mr. Lincoln's attention both as 
 candidate and President were of too crucial a 
 nature to permit consideration of lesser policies. 
 When one's house is afire he is concerned with 
 putting the blaze out, not with painting the 
 house or papering the walls. Had his administra- 
 tion been in times of peace we may readily 
 assume the President would have given his sup- 
 port to necessary betterments of the nation's 
 internal affairs. 
 
 As to loyalty to the Constitution and undying 
 support of the Federal Union — Lincoln lived and 
 died in behalf of the integrity of the one and 
 the indissoluble nature of the other. 7 Citations 
 from his speeches, documents, and correspond- 
 ence which show his devotion to these basic 
 beliefs are legion. 
 
 7. Burton J. Hendrick, in his Bulwark of the Republic, Little, Brown & 
 Co., Boston, 1937, calls Clay "An idolator of the Constitution," see 
 index, page 455. In a speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan, Aug. 27, 1856, 
 Lincoln said: "Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That 
 must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties." 
 
 23 
 
On the subject of Abraham Lincoln's patriot- 
 ism, it is enough to aver that his love for the 
 land of his birth was on a par with that of Henry 
 Clay. Here, the disciple was as great as his 
 master. Both could have said as did Webster in 
 his speech at the completion of the Bunker Hill 
 Monument on June 17, 1843, m a voice trembling 
 with emotion, "Thank God, I — I also — am an 
 American/' 
 
 IV 
 
 On the red-hot issue of slavery, neither Clay 
 nor Lincoln was an Abolitionist. Both regarded 
 slavery as an evil and alien to the spirit of "a 
 government by the people, of the people, and 
 for the people." Clay compromised on the slav- 
 ery issue, believing, in so doing, that he was 
 serving the best interests of the harrassed nation. 
 Gerald W. Johnson, in his book, America s Silver 
 Age, a study of the statecraft of Clay, Webster, 
 and Calhoun, says on page 242, "Like most 
 reasonable men of his own day, and like his 
 great pupil, Lincoln, Clay, while opposing slav- 
 ery, did not consider it an evil great enough to 
 justify the destruction of the Union. " Clay's 
 sensitive conscience on slavery found some sur- 
 cease in the American Colonization Society, of 
 which he was one of the founders and for some 
 years its president. Today, this scheme of ship- 
 
 24 
 
ping the freed Negroes to Liberia and colonizing 
 them there, appears chimerical, impractical, and 
 an evasion of the real issue. But to those who 
 faced the possibility of a dissolution of the Union 
 on the matter of slavery, the plan seemed a way 
 out. Lincoln accepted the plan with some mis- 
 givings, saying, as late as 1857, in a speech at 
 Springfield, Illinois: "The enterprise is a difficult 
 one, but 'Where there is a will there is a way/ 
 and what colonization needs is a hearty will." 
 To slave owners, with characteristic candor, he 
 made his position plain. "I have no prejudice," 
 said he, "against the Southern people. They are 
 just what we would be in their situation. If 
 slavery did not now exist among them, they 
 would not introduce it. If it did now exist among 
 
 us, we would not instantly give it up When 
 
 Southern people tell us they are no more respon- 
 sible for the origin of slavery than we are, I 
 acknowledge the fact." 8 
 
 President Lincoln, after the manner of his 
 illustrious mentor, was also willing to compro- 
 mise on slavery, if thereby the Union could be 
 saved. Thus, in his oft-quoted letter to Horace 
 Greeley, under date of August 22, 1862, Mr. 
 Lincoln wrote: "My paramount object in this 
 struggle is to save the Union, and is not either 
 
 8. From Lincoln's speech at Peoria, October 16, 1854, Complete Works of 
 Abraham Lincoln, Nicolay & Hay (The Gettysburg Edition), Francis 
 D. Tandy Co., New York, 1905, vol. II, page 190. 
 
 25 
 
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." Unlike his "beau ideal of a states- 
 man, " Mr. Lincoln never owned a slave, nor can 
 we imagine him in such a proprietorship. He 
 once said,"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery 
 is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remem- 
 ber when I did not so think and feel." 9 
 
 In this connection it is pertinent to recall the 
 sapient observations of James Parton in his 
 chapter on Clay in Famous Americans of Recent 
 Times , page 51: 
 
 While slavery existed, no statesmanship was possible, 
 except that which was temporary and temporizing. 
 The thorn, we repeat, was in the flesh; and the 
 doctors were all pledged to try and cure the patient 
 without extracting it. They could do nothing but 
 dress the wound, put on this salve and that, give the 
 sufferer a little respite from anguish, and, after a brief 
 interval, repeat the operation. Of all these physicians, 
 Henry Clay was the most skillful and effective. He 
 both handled the sore place with consummate dexter- 
 ity, and kept up the constitution of the patient by 
 
 9. From a letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864, Complete Works of 
 Abraham Lincoln , Nicolay & Hay, (The Gettysburg Edition), Francis 
 D. Tandy Co., New York, 1905, vol. X, page 65. This is, for Lincoln, 
 a long letter and sets forth his views on slavery and the Union with 
 ringing conviction. In the same letter occurs a famous sentence, often 
 quoted, to wit: "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess 
 plainly that events have controlled me." 
 
 26 
 
stimulants, which enabled him, at last, to live 
 through the appalling operation which removed the 
 cause of his agony. 
 
 Lincoln, let it be said reverently, was the 
 surgeon who performed the major operation 
 which removed the thorn. Furthermore, it is 
 probable that had it not been for Clay there 
 would have been no Union for Lincoln to save. 10 
 
 V 
 
 On July 1 6, 1852, just seventeen days after 
 the death of Senator Clay, there was held in 
 the State House, Springfield, Illinois, a solemn 
 memorial convocation in honor of that states- 
 man. The Illinois Journal announced the order 
 of the day as follows : 
 
 Honors to the Memory of Henry Clay. Order of 
 Procession. The procession will be formed on Adams 
 Street, in front of the Episcopal Church, the right 
 resting on 3d at ten o'clock. The funeral services of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church will be read by the 
 Reverend Charles Dresser, (in the church) at the 
 close of which the procession will be formed in the 
 following order: 
 
 10. On the Compromise of 1850, Carl Schurz, in his two volume biog- 
 raphy of Henry Clay, writes: "One effect it produced which Calhoun 
 had clearly predicted when he warned the slaveholding States against 
 compromises as an invention of the enemy; it adjourned the decisive 
 conflict until the superiority of the North over the South in population 
 and material resources was overwhelming, and, as it happened, until a 
 party, and at its head a man, held the helm of affairs, whose antislavery 
 principles and aims made it sure that the cause of the mischief would 
 not in any form survive the issue of the struggle." Vol. II, pages 372 
 and 373- 
 
 27 
 
Chief Marshall 
 
 Assistant Marshalls 
 
 Clergy and Orator 
 Judges of and Officers of the United States Circuit 
 and District Courts and Members of the Bar. 
 
 Officers of the State 
 
 Officers of the County 
 
 Mayor and City Council 
 
 Citizens — four abreast 
 
 Sons of Temperance 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
 
 Masonic Order 
 
 Seventy-six minute guns were fired and the 
 bells tolled beginning at n o'clock, A.M. During 
 the proceedings business was suspended; stores 
 were closed. It was an impressive occasion, and 
 Abraham Lincoln, the orator of the day, was 
 equal to the solemn event. He spoke for about 
 forty minutes, and in the course of the eulogy 
 said: 
 Henry Clay is dead! — He breathed his last on yester- 
 day at twenty minutes after eleven, in his chamber 
 at Washington. 11 To those who followed his lead in 
 public affairs, it more appropriately belongs to pro- 
 nounce his eulogy, and pay specific honors to the 
 memory of the illustrious dead. But all Americans 
 may show the grief which his death inspires, for his 
 character and fame are national property. As on a 
 question of liberty, he knew no North, no South, 
 no East, no West, but only the Union which held 
 
 ii. Evidently Mr. Lincoln wrote this speech, or part of it, on June 30th, 
 the day after Mr. Clay's passing. In delivering it on July 16 he may 
 have omitted or changed this sentence. However, it appears as noted 
 in all of the printed forms of the speech which the writer has seen. 
 
 28 
 
them all in its sacred circle, so now his countrymen 
 will know no grief, that is not as wide-spread as the 
 bounds of the confederacy. The career of Henry Clay 
 was a public career. From his youth he has been 
 devoted to the public service, at a period too, in the 
 world's history justly regarded as a remarkable era 
 in human affairs. He witnessed in the beginning the 
 throes of the French Revolution. He saw the rise and 
 fall of Napoleon. He was called upon to legislate for 
 America, and direct her policy when all Europe was 
 the battle-field of contending dynasties, and when 
 the struggle for supremacy imperiled the rights of all 
 neutral nations. His voice spoke war and peace in the 
 contest with Great Britain. When Greece rose against 
 the Turks and struck for liberty, his name was 
 mingled with the battle cry of freedom. When South 
 America threw off the thraldom of Spain, his speeches 
 were read at the head of her armies by Bolivar. His 
 name has been, and will continue to be, hallowed in 
 two hemispheres, for it is — 
 
 "One of the few, the immortal names 
 That were not born to die.' > 
 
 There are two things about this speech, of 
 which the passage just quoted is but a fragment, 
 that deserve mention. First, the eulogy shows 
 the depths of Abraham Lincoln's affection and 
 admiration for Henry Clay and, second, it re- 
 veals the noble eloquence of which Mr. Lincoln 
 was capable when the theme was congenial. 
 
 It must be apparent from even so cursory a 
 review of the lives and deeds of these two illus- 
 trious sons of the Republic that Henry Clay's 
 influence on Abraham Lincoln is an important 
 
 29 
 
and fascinating fact of our history. What Jeffer- 
 son was to Madison and Monroe, Clay was to 
 Lincoln, but with this difference — the master at 
 Ashland was a more lovable person that the 
 Sage of Monticello. 
 
 Nine months before Clay's death he listed the 
 events in his political career and prepared them 
 for an inscription to be put upon a large gold 
 medal which his friends in New York caused to 
 be struck in commemoration of his public serv- 
 ices. Here they are: 
 
 Senate, 1806 
 
 Speaker, 181 1 
 
 War of 1 8 12 with Great Britain 
 
 Treaty of Ghent, 18 14 
 
 Missouri Compromise, 1821 
 
 Friendship for Spanish America, 1822 
 
 American System, 1824 
 
 Defender of Independence for Greece, 1824 
 
 Secretary of State, 1825 
 
 Panama Instructions, 1826 
 
 Tariff Compromise, 1833 
 
 Public Domain, 1833-1841 
 
 Peace with France Preserved, 1835 
 
 The Last Great Compromise, 1850 12 
 
 On consideration of these important events 
 by which Mr. Clay wished to be remembered, 
 the question emerges, by what events in Mr. 
 Lincoln's public life will posterity choose to 
 
 12. Clay's summary of the chief events in his public life is so brief as 
 to necessitate a few additional words by way of clarification for present- 
 day readers. 
 
 30 
 
remember him? Surely such a chronicle would 
 include the following: 
 
 The "Lost Speech," delivered at the organization of 
 
 the Republican Party in Illinois, Bloomington, 
 
 May 29, 1856. 
 Series of seven debates with Senator Stephen A. 
 
 Douglas, 1858 
 Cooper Institute speech, New York City, Feb. 27, 
 
 i860 
 Elected President of the United States, Nov. 9, i860 
 Issued Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863 
 Address delivered at the dedication of the National 
 
 Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pa., Nov. 19, 1863 
 Letter to Lydia Bixby, Nov. 21, 1864 
 Reelected President United States, Nov. 8, 1864 
 Message to Congress and Proclamation of Amnesty, 
 
 Dec. 6, 1864 
 Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 
 Last Public Address setting forth conciliatory attitude 
 
 toward the South, April 11, 1865 
 
 VI 
 
 Henry Clay and Lexington are forever linked 
 in song and story. To this community, he gave 
 generously of his time and talents. Thus, his 
 connection with Transylvania University was 
 intimate and significant. From 1805 to 1807 he 
 was professor of law and politics in that institu- 
 tion. He was an honored member of the Board 
 of Trustees for over twenty years, and active in 
 the choice of Dr. Alva Woods of Brown Univer- 
 sity to succeed as president the brilliant Horace 
 
 3i 
 
Holley, who resigned amid a storm of contro- 
 versy. Then, in 1822, Transylvania conferred on 
 Mr. Clay the honorary degree of Doctor of 
 Laws. In 1843, Lexington was the arena of the 
 famous debate between Alexander Campbell, 
 famed polemic and theologian of the Disciples of 
 Christ, and Dr. Nathan L. Rice, noted Presby- 
 terian clergyman. Mr. Clay was made moderator 
 of this debate, which was held in the Main Street 
 Christian Church, lasted sixteen days and at- 
 tracted throngs of partisans, some coming hun- 
 dreds of miles. In print this debate fills 912 
 pages, with more than half a million words. 
 Procuring Henry Clay to referee this verbal 
 contest was somebody's work of genius. 
 
 Clay's pride in Ashland, his spacious country 
 estate, resembled that of Jefferson for his beloved 
 Monticello, and of Webster for the broad acres 
 of his Marshfield. Here, happily, was an oasis in 
 the desert of Clay's political disappointments; a 
 haven from the storms of partisan controversy 
 and abuse. Here, the veteran of many political 
 battles loved to pace along a path beneath the 
 friendly trees, while fondly reflecting on the 
 domestic scene or contemplating, from afar, 
 what was happening at Washington. To tarry 
 at Ashland is to sense the mystic presence of 
 him who loved his Old Kentucky Home with a 
 love that knew no bounds. 
 
 In 1847 the Lincolns made a three weeks' visit 
 
 32 
 
in Lexington with Mrs. Lincoln's home folks, 
 the Robert S. Todds of West Main Street. They 
 were on their way to Washington, where the 
 Springfield lawyer was to take his seat in the 
 Thirtieth Congress. This was one of the few 
 vacations the Lincolns had carefully planned, 
 and there is every reason to believe it was the 
 most enjoyable. Mrs. Lincoln had not been back 
 home since she left in 1839. Now she was bring- 
 ing her Congressman-elect husband and two 
 bright little sons to the place of her birth. Did 
 she recall, as she looked upon the familiar scenes 
 of her girlhood, a letter she once wrote to her 
 friend, Miss Margaret Wickliffe, in which she 
 told of the man of her choice, his personal 
 appearance, tall, gaunt, awkward, and then 
 added, "But I mean to make him to be President 
 of the United States all the same"? We do not 
 know the answer but it is pleasant to surmise 
 that she did recall the incident 
 
 In an unpublished manuscript by Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher Todd, entitled "Concerning Lincoln's 
 Last Hours," dated March 23, 1901, now in 
 possession of the Honorable William H. Town- 
 send, and used here by his gracious permission, 
 occurs this statement: "I have seen |him [Lincoln] 
 when twice he visited Lexington, Kentucky, — 
 on last occasion when he was the guest of Mr. 
 Clay at Ashland." This reference is evidently to 
 the visit of the Lincolns to Kentucky in 1849 in 
 
 33 
 
connection with the settlement of the Robert S. 
 Todd estate. 
 
 There is no evidence to date, in newspapers or 
 letters, to show that the Lincolns visited the 
 Clays at Ashland on the occasion of their visit 
 to Lexington in 1847, but the case is one where 
 the circumstantial evidence is transcendent. The 
 Todds were both personal and political friends 
 of Mr. Clay. Mary had been nurtured in the 
 belief that Henry Clay was destined to be 
 President of the United States. He had probably 
 dandled that lively little girl more than once 
 upon his knees. What could be more natural and 
 desirable than that Lincoln should visit his 
 "beau ideal of a statesman/' or, that Clay was 
 pleased to welcome at Ashland this rising young 
 Whig and loyal disciple? 
 
 What would we not give for a candid camera 
 shot of Clay greeting Lincoln at Ashland! How 
 we wish we knew what the two canny politicos 
 talked about when they folded their long legs 
 and invited their souls! 
 
 Here in Lexington, on November 15, 1847, 
 Lincoln heard Clay deliver an address at the 
 Lower Market-House on "The Conduct of the 
 Mexican War." Mr. Clay spoke for two and 
 one-half hours, according to the Lexington 
 Observer & Reporter of November 17, 1847. In 
 the course of his speech Mr. Clay said: "This is 
 no war of defense, but one unnecessary and of 
 
 34 
 
offensive aggression. It is Mexico that is defend- 
 ing her firesides, her castles, and her altars, 
 not we." 
 
 The noted lawyer and historian, William H. 
 Townsend, in his volume, Lincoln and His Wife's 
 Home Town, says in reference to Lincoln's course 
 in the Thirtieth Congress: "Lincoln had never 
 accepted the repeated declaration by President 
 Polk that the first blood of the war with Mexico 
 had been shed on American soil, and Clay's 
 address at Lexington had convinced him that 
 such was not the case." 
 
 Surely one of the brightest spots in the mem- 
 ory of the Lincolns was that visit to Lexington 
 in the autumn of 1847. They must have lived 
 that experience over and over again and the 
 recollection helped to assuage the grief that they 
 were to know in later years. 
 
 Then came the Civil War. The House had 
 divided. Clay's family was also divided. Of his 
 sons, James went with the Confederacy, and 
 died in exile in Canada; John and Thomas 
 stayed with the Union. John, who was then 
 living at the Ashland Stock Farm, sent to 
 President Lincoln a snuffbox which had been 
 presented to his father, with friendly greetings 
 from Mrs. Clay and himself. To this the Presi- 
 dent replied as follows: 
 
 35 
 
EXECUTIVE MANSION 
 
 Washington, August 9, 1862. 
 
 Mr. John M. Clay, 
 
 My Dear Sir, — The snuff-box you sent, with the 
 accompanying note, was received yesterday. 
 
 Thanks for this memento of your great and 
 patriotic father. Thanks also for the assurance that, 
 in these days of dereliction, you remain true to his 
 principles. In the concurrent sentiment of your 
 venerable mother, so long the partner of his bosom 
 and his honors, and lingering now, where he was, but 
 for the call to rejoin him where he is, I recognize his 
 voice, speaking as it ever spoke, for the Union, the 
 Constitution, and the freedom of mankind. 13 
 
 Your Obt. Servt., 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
 Thus, again the names of Henry Clay and 
 Abraham Lincoln were united, not only in the 
 mystic bonds of memory but also in the un- 
 shakeable conviction that "liberty and union, 
 now and forever" are "one and inseparable. ,, 
 
 13. Here is one of Mr. Lincoln's most felicitous notes. The diction is 
 choice and the sympathy expressed tenderly beautiful. Few statesmen 
 have been able to compress so much of value in so small a compass as 
 did Mr. Lincoln. Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Nicolay & Hay 
 (Gettysburg Edition), Francis D. Tandy Co., New York, 1905, vol. VII, 
 page 307. 
 
 36 
 
tVlLs /J Kl~/jf- S&XJ Mt^ J^iJC, i~sLZ£/ 
 
 A<^£u y&Z?Ctf. S#W^ <+a~ ^ &tJ **>^«^^ 
 
 /*w 4^c+*£~*&*j y^i>C^^f f /# /«-m /^ /c«»Z5U~ erf ^^ 
 
 31 
 
VII 
 
 What is so enchanting as the American Dream? 
 To be possessed of that Dream presupposes that, 
 like St. Paul, one must be obedient to the vision 
 splendid. To muse long and deeply on that 
 Dream is to conclude that our Republic is 
 opulent in preeminent personalities. Some of 
 these were men to match the mountains, and 
 shine in history as steadily as the Polar star. A 
 simple reference to the states which gave them 
 birth, or provided the theater for their activities, 
 is but to recall their shining names. 
 
 Think of New York and Alexander Hamilton 
 emerges; speak of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson 
 is lord of the event; recall Pennsylvania and 
 Benjamin Franklin takes a philosophic bow; 
 dream of Massachusetts and Daniel Webster 
 mounts the rostrum; name Missouri and the 
 portly form of Thomas Hart Benton looms 
 impressively; consider South Carolina and John 
 C. Calhoun dominates the scene; talk of Ten- 
 nessee and Andrew Jackson strides upon the 
 stage; mention Illinois and Abraham Lincoln 
 rises to his full height — "the prairie lawyer, 
 master of us all;" muse on Kentucky and Henry 
 Clay stands up to speak, his marvelous voice 
 falling like the strains of martial music on the 
 listening multitude as he proclaims: "The Union 
 is my country; the thirty states are my country; 
 
 38 
 
Kentucky is my country, and Virginia, no more 
 than any other of the states of the Union. . . . 
 I know no South, no North, no East, no West. ,, 
 
 They are gone who seemed so great — 
 
 Gone; but nothing can bereave them 
 
 Of the force they made their own 
 
 Being here, and we believe them 
 
 Something far advanced in state 
 
 And that they wear a truer crown 
 
 Than any wreath that men can weave 
 
 them. 
 
 Speak no more of their renown, 
 
 Lay your earthly fancies down, 
 
 And in the vast cathedral leave them . . . 14 
 
 14. Adapted from Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of 
 Wellington." 
 
 39 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Golden Age of American Oratory, Edward G. Parker, Whittemore, 
 Niles & Hall, Boston, 1857. The chapter on Clay as an orator is skill- 
 fully and brilliantly done by a connoisseur of great public speaking. 
 
 Famous Americans of Recent Times, James Parton, Ticknor & Fields, 
 Boston, 1867. Contains a very fine and favorable chapter on Clay. 
 
 Henry Clay, Carl Schurz, two vols., Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and 
 New York, 1887 and 1889. Generally regarded as the best biography 
 of Clay to date. 
 
 The True Henry Clay, Joseph M. Rogers, J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila- 
 delphia and London, 1904. A justly popular and entertaining volume. 
 
 Forty Years of Washington Society, Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith, T. 
 Fisher Unwin, London, 1906. Delightful scenes of social life at the 
 nation's capital, with the Clays much in evidence. 
 
 Henry Clay, by his grandson, Thomas Hart Clay, George W. Jacobs & 
 Co., Philadelphia, 1910. Readable and especially helpful in dealing 
 with Clay's personal and family life. 
 
 The Party Battles of the Jackson Period, Claude G. Bowers, Houghton 
 Mifflin Co., Boston, 1928. An embattled and thrilling story with 
 Jackson and Clay in the midst of the fray. 
 
 As God Made Them, Gamaliel Bradford, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston 
 and New York, 1929. Contains a chapter in which the author does a 
 fascinating psychograph of the Kentucky orator. 
 
 Henry Clay, Judge Samuel M. Wilson, Lexington, Ky., The Henry Clay 
 Memorial Foundation. A noble address on Mr. Clay by a distinguished 
 lawyer, delivered Nov. 19, 1930, in the state capitol in Frankfort, Ky. 
 
 Henry Clay and the Whig Party, George Rawlings Poage, The University 
 of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N. C, 1936. A valuable work, 
 and invaluable to those who are interested in the origin and life of 
 the Whig Party. 
 
 40 
 
The Life of Henry Clay, Glyndon G. Van Deusen, Little, Brown & Co., 
 Boston, 1937. A distinctive work, scholarly and delightful. 
 
 Henry Clay, Spokesman of the New West, Bernard Mayo, Houghton 
 Mifflin Co., Boston, 1937. The first volume of a trilogy on Clay, 
 which is so good as to make us impatient for the completion of the 
 series. 
 
 America s Silver Age, Gerald W. Johnson, Harper & Brothers, New 
 York, 1939. A study of the Great American Triumvirate, with Clay 
 in the stellar part. Frank and critical, yet fair enough. 
 
 Last Days, Death and Funeral of Henry Clay, J. Winston Coleman, Jr., 
 Litt. D., Winburn Press, Lexington, Ky., 1951. An important contri- 
 bution to the Clay story by a Kentucky historian of distinction. 
 
 Lincoln Master of Men, Alonzo Rothschild, Houghton Mifflin Co., 
 Boston, 1908. A study of the qualities that gave Lincoln mastery over 
 himself and others. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln by Some Men Who Knew Him. Edited and with an 
 Introduction by Hon. Isaac N. Phillips, Pantagraph Printing & 
 Stationery Co., Bloomington, Illinois, 1910. A collector's item, my 
 copy presented to me by the distinguished author. New edition, 
 edited and foreword by Paul M. Angle, Chicago, 1950. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Brand Whitlock, Small, Maynard & Co., Boston, 
 
 1 91 6. The best brief biography of Lincoln in existence. My copy 
 autographed by the author in Brussels, 19 July, 1919. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Lord Charnwood, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 
 
 1 917. An impressive biography by a famous Englishman, written 
 with charm and discrimination. One of the best of the one volume 
 lives. The author was en rapport with his theme. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln As a Man of Letters, Luther Emerson Robinson, G. P. 
 Putnam Sons, New York, 1923. An arresting volume on an inter- 
 esting subject. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, two vols., Carl Sandburg, Harcourt, 
 Brace & Co., New York, 1926. The saga of the "Railsplitter," from 
 birth to his departure from Springfield en route to Washington, Feb. 
 nth, 1865. Poetic, pathetic, and beautifully written. 
 
 Lincoln's Parentage and Childhood, Louis A. Warren, The Century Co., 
 New York, 1926. An important book, the classic on the subject. 
 
 Lincoln and His Wife's Home Town, William H. Townsend, Bobbs- 
 Merrill Co., Indianapolis, 1929. The best book on Lexington to date, 
 with much about the Clays and Lincolns, written with grace and 
 distinction. 
 
 41 
 
Famous Speeches: Abraham Lincoln, with an Introduction by William 
 H. Townsend, Peter Pauper Press, New Rochelle, 1935. The principal 
 speeches of the Uncommon Commoner, from January 27, 1838 to 
 April 11, 1865. Beautifully printed. 
 
 A Treasury oj the World's Great Letters, compiled by M, Lincoln Schuster, 
 Simon and Schuster, New York, 1940. A fascinating work on a de- 
 lectable subject. 
 
 Lincoln and the South, J. G. Randall, Louisiana State University Press, 
 Baton Rouge, La., 1946. A little book which every Southerner should 
 read. 
 
 The Lincoln Reader, Edited and with an Introduction by Paul M. Angle, 
 Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1947. A "must book" for 
 all who admire Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Lincoln and the Preachers, Edgar DeWitt Jones, Harper & Brothers, 
 New York, 1948 (second printing with Index, 1949). Contains in 
 Appendix I a Who's Who of the clergymen in the Lincoln story and 
 in Appendix II a full length sermon preached by Henry Ward Beecher 
 in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, Sunday Morning, February 26, i860, 
 with Abraham Lincoln occupying pew No. 89. 
 
 42 
 
Three thousand copies of this book have been printed 
 
 at the Printing Office of Philip Reed 
 
 Chicago, Illinois