Volume 1 — LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. (continued 4)

When he reached Lexington, its citizens gave him a dinner, and as heretofore, showered on him their enthusiastic approbation and applause.

In January, 1817, the subject of the well known Seminole war was brought before the house for its consideration. Several features relating to the mode in which it had been conducted, demanded, in the opinion of many humane members, a critical investigation. The character which had been given to that war, by the chieftain to whose management it was intrusted, was reflecting strongly on the honor and justice of our country. She had sustained a grievous injury from a portion of the Seminole Indians, who, during the last war, aided the British arms against her, and feeling that she had just cause for seeking redress, despatched general Andrew Jackson, at the head of a strong military force, to obtain it. He marched into their territory, and in a short time so reduced them, that a portion sued for peace. A treaty was accordingly prepared, in August, 1814, but which was not signed by many of the chiefs, except those previously friendly to our country, who constituted only about one third of the nation. This misnomered treaty, from its cruel and unheard-of tyrannical exactions, had found a much more appropriate resting place by the side of the ruthless interdicts of a Nero, or a Trajan, than in the archives of a christian nation. The poor natives, reduced to actual starvation, their wigwams and villages in ashes, withering in the dust beneath the feet of the conqueror, had no alternative but to submit to death, or just such terms as he chose to dictate. They preferred the latter, which was meted out with a hand nerved with all the unrelenting sternness of patriotism, without any of its mercy. The Indians obtained what they sought, but they paid dearly for it. The instrument granted them peace, on condition that they would cede a large portion of their territory to the United States, and yield them important powers and privileges over the remainder, and deliver into the hands of the conqueror the prophets of their nation. It needed only a superficial knowledge of the Indian character, to perceive that their proud and haughty spirit would not long brook a compliance with terms so abjectly humiliating. Not many months elapsed before they began to renew their depredations on our frontiers. Though acts of cruelty, on the part of the Seminoles, were of frequent occurrence, apparently calling loudly for vengeance, still they were greatly palliated by a letter from ten of the Seminole towns, addressed to the commanding officer of fort Hawkins, on the eleventh of September, 1817, in which it was stated that not a solitary white man had been butchered by them, except in revenge for the unprovoked murder of an Indian. ‘The white people,’ it declared, ‘killed our people first, the Indians then took satisfaction. There are yet three men that the red people have never taken satisfaction for.’ The governor of Georgia, accurately acquainted with all the facts, declared his honest and sincere conviction that they were not in fault. But supposing the whites had not been guilty of outrages on the Seminoles, subsequent to the date of the treaty, yet its unjustly oppressive character, the paucity of their chieftains’ signatures attached to it, and the obligations imposed on the United States, by the ninth article of the treaty of Ghent, towards the Indian tribes, to say nothing of the law of nature, justified, in our humble opinion, the attempts of the Seminoles to shake off the insupportably heavy burden which military despotism had bound upon them. In view of these facts, in relation to general Jackson’s treatment of the Seminoles, it is unnecessary to say, that his second expedition against them was not marked by one mitigating or lenient feature; that they were treated more like dogs than men; that their chiefs were decoyed by him into his camp, and there seized and instantly put to death. In short, that every principle of honor, humanity, and justice, which ought to accompany the operations of a civilized army, was utterly disregarded. It is not surprising, therefore, that the patriotically disposed, in congress, on beholding the dark spot gathering on the escutcheon of their country’s fame, in consequence of such high-handed proceedings, should rise up and attempt to efface it. General Jackson’s conduct in the Florida war, was made the subject of special investigation, during the session of 1818–19. A series of resolutions were offered to congress, severely censuring it, which Mr. Clay sustained in a speech of unparalleled ability. Although on terms of personal intimacy with the general, although he accorded to him his just meed of praise, for the distinguished service he had rendered his country in the battle of New Orleans, still Mr. Clay thought he had transcended the limits of both law and equity, and did not allow his feelings of friendship for him to interpose any obstacle to the frank and fearless avowal of his sentiments. He commented very severely upon his treatment of Indian prisoners, in ordering their inhuman massacre, after obtaining possession of them, by the artifice of a ‘false flag,’ not hesitating to pronounce it wanton, barbaric, and uncalled for. But his flagrant violations of the rights of neutrality called forth his sharpest animadversions. During the campaign, two Indian traders, Messrs. Arbuthnot and Ambrister, the former a Scotchman, the latter an Englishman, had fallen into the hands of general Jackson. Ambrister was found in the Indian camp, Arbuthnot within the limits of Spanish jurisdiction. The Englishman was suspected of having instigated the savages to make war upon the whites, and the Scotchman was charged with informing the Indians of their rights, as secured to them by the treaty of Ghent, and of having advised them to maintain them by force of arms. These unfortunate men, he ordered the one to be shot and the other hung, in direct opposition to the decision of a court martial of his own choosing. The turpitude of this act, Mr. Clay exhibited in its true colors. He contrasted the execution of Arbuthnot with the blackest act of Napoleon, the execution of Louis of France, and showed that for atrocity, and disregard for justice and clemency, it cast the latter far into the back-ground. His aggression committed upon the Spanish authorities, in seizing upon St. Marks and Pensacola, fell under the rod of his reprobation. Mr. Clay denounced these acts as falling little short of tyrannic usurpation, and which could not be justified on any ground of justice or reason. His speech on this occasion, has been compared to the polished orations of Sheridan, in the case of Hastings, but as exhibiting a much milder spirit, one of sincere sorrow, instead of revenge.

The resolutions were rejected by a small majority, which is not surprising, on considering that Mr. Monroe, his cabinet, and nearly all the house, were disinclined to arraign the conduct of general Jackson in the Seminole war, and when we reflect that Mr. Clay did not repeat his efforts, as he usually did. The general, who soon after visited Washington, took umbrage at Mr. Clay’s speech, and carried his animosity so far as to refuse to have any intercourse with him, although he called on him directly after his arrival, thus evincing an unabatement of friendship.

To whatever part of Mr. Clay’s congressional career we turn our eyes, we invariably find him actively engaged in building up that magnificent system of domestic utility, whenever circumstances admitted. This he commenced, as we have seen, previous to the war, and his attachment to it had been increasing ever since, until the conviction of its indispensable importance to the country had sunk so deep into his mind, as to cause him to toil unremittingly, in order that the beneficial influences of that system might be diffused over it as soon as possible. For these, the farmer at his plough and the mechanic in his shop were stretching out their hands. These, our infant manufactories, which sprang up to supply the demands caused by the war, demanded, and these were requisite to make the union (what Mr. Clay never lost sight of,) independent in reality, as she was in name, of all foreign powers.

It was obvious to both parties in congress, that in order to accomplish an object so essential to the welfare of the nation, a protective tariff was necessary. Accordingly, on the twelfth of March, 1816, Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, one of the committee of ways and means, made a report relative to the policy of protection. He sustained the policy by an able speech, and was followed by Mr. Calhoun, who also advocated it. Mr. Clay yielded his unqualified assent and vindication, and sought to cause the bill to be so formed as to secure efficient protection for woollen fabrics. It was finally adopted.

In April, 1820, the subject of a protective tariff came again before congress. The distress which the country had experienced since 1816, was seen to have originated, in a great degree, from inadequate protection, particularly that which had fallen upon the manufacturing districts. To a bill revising and improving the tariff of 1816, Mr. Clay gave his ardent support. As on former similar occasions, he urged its adoption on the high ground of national utility. ‘I frankly own,’ said he, ‘that I feel great solicitude for the success of this bill. The entire independence of my country of all foreign states, as it respects a supply of our essential wants, has ever been with me a favorite object. The war of our revolution effected our political emancipation. The last war contributed greatly towards accomplishing our commercial freedom. But our complete independence will only be consummated after the policy of this bill shall be recognized and adopted.’ The bill, though passed by the house, was defeated in the senate.

In 1824, the distress of the country had increased to such an enormous extent, that the most serious apprehensions began to be entertained, lest the productive energies of the land would be completely annihilated, unless some remedy should be devised. There was no department which did not feel its blighting influence; navigation and commerce, no less than agriculture and manufactures, tottered beneath the tremendous weight of gloom, which, like a dense cloud of ruin, overshadowed the whole nation. Our vessels were either lying idle at their moorings, or mostly going in ballast; all encouragement for enterprise was taken away; produce was plenty, but purchasers few; our granaries and store houses were full to overflowing, and in many instances, their contents were going to decay; to obtain money, except at ruinous rates, was out of the question, consequently labor was in little demand and poorly rewarded; the depreciation of property of all kinds was unparalleled, and disorder and embarrassment pervaded every rank and condition of every industrial department. It was under such circumstances, that a farther revision and enlargement of the tariff of 1816 was proposed. In the house, the committee on manufactures reported a bill to that effect, at the same time expressing their opinion, that the evils which then existed, were clearly traceable to inefficient protection of domestic industry, and of relying too much on foreign producers, thereby allowing the specie, the life-blood of the country, to be drained out of it. This defect the bill proposed to remedy. Mr. Clay came forward in its support, under the most solemn impressions of the exceedingly lamentable condition which his country was in, and evinced, by every tone of his voice and look of his countenance, his deep anxiety to extend to her the hand of speedy relief. ‘If it were allowable for us at the present day,’ said he, ‘to imitate ancient examples, I would invoke the aid of the Most High. I would anxiously and fervently implore his divine assistance, that he would be graciously pleased to shower on my country his richest blessings, and that he would sustain, on this interesting occasion, the individual who stands before him, and lend him the power, moral and physical, to perform the solemn duties which now belong to his public station.’ He felt that it was indeed a sad sight, to behold a free and mighty nation sitting in sackcloth and ashes, with her hands shackled by a policy as unwise as it was foreign to her interests, with which, had they been free, she could have clothed herself with beautiful garments, excited the envy and admiration of the world, and brushed like chaff every vestige of depression and distress from her borders. He contended that the causes of these were easily discoverable, and as easily removable; that they were entirely within our control, and that we had but to will it and the work was done, and it was high time, he said, to set about it. Evils of every description had been accumulating during the last ten years, until they had become so numerous and great as to be no longer patible. But it was a source of satisfaction to know that they need not be endured—that they were medicable—that with a change of policy they would disappear, as certainly as darkness disappears before light. A cultivation of her own resources, he said, would relieve the country. If she would break away from that state of foreign vassalage, into which she had voluntarily entered, the streams of commerce would again fertilize her fair fields. If she would but extend her hand and pluck from her breast the thorn, which her own suicidal policy had planted there, he avowed his belief that the rose of industry would spring up in its place. This change of policy, he believed, would accomplish all that would be requisite to her peace and prosperity. In supporting the bill, however, he had to encounter much and strong opposition, at the head of which stood Daniel Webster. The collision of these eloquent and intellectual giants, is said to have been inconceivably grand. Says a gentleman who witnessed it, ‘the eloquence of Mr. Webster was the majestic roar of a strong and steady blast, pealing through the forest; but that of Mr. Clay was the tone of a god-like instrument, sometimes visited by an angel touch, and swept anon by all the fury of the raging elements.’ Mr. Clay, aware that he was contending for the very vitality of his country, had nerved himself up to one of his mightiest efforts, one which would demolish every opposing obstacle, and plant his foot in complete triumph on the ruins of the strongest holds of his assailants. He turned aside every weapon directed against his system, and entirely disarmed all opposition. The bill passed the house on the sixteenth of April, by a vote of one hundred and seven to one hundred and two, and shortly after became a law, and its beneficial effects were felt throughout the country. The operations of this system, in connection with the United States bank, which was now rapidly correcting the derangements in the currency, filled the land with gladness and prosperity. Enterprise came forth from his retiracy, to which the previous embarrassment had driven him, and shaking the dust of sloth from his garments, cast his eyes about over the vast and beautiful field which invited his occupancy. Encouraged by the loud and united voices of this wisely regulated institution, and the American system, he took immediate possession. The desert bloomed, the forest fell, the mill arose, and the wheel of industry, which before was slumbering on its rusting axle, under the guidance of his potent hand began again its healthful revolutions, and soon the land was belted by her green and golden tracks. He hushed the voice of woe, and caused the loud shout of joy to go up from every hill and vale throughout the nation. After she had enjoyed his life-imparting influence eight years, Mr. Clay thus describes her appearance. ‘We have the agreeable contemplation of a people out of debt, innumerable flocks and herds browsing on ten thousand hills and plains covered with rich and verdant grasses, our cities expanded, and whole villages springing up as it were by enchantment, our exports and imports increased and increasing, our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, fully occupied, the rivers of our interior animated by countless steamboats, the currency sound and abundant, the public debt of two wars nearly redeemed, and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, embarrassing congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the objects which shall be relieved from the imposts. If the term of seven years were to be selected, of the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the establishment of their present constitution, it would be exactly the period of seven years which immediately followed the passage of the tariff of 1824.’ Who can doubt, after an impartial survey of the whole ground, (and a superficial one is sufficient,) who can doubt that the materials for limning the above strong, but correct picture, were furnished by a sound currency, and a judicious tariff. As long as the term tariff shall remain in the English vocabulary, will the memory of Henry Clay, in all the verdancy of spring, abide in the heart of the nation.

Notwithstanding the sturdy opposition which Mr. Webster arrayed against this system, as advocated by Mr. Clay, he became its ardent supporter when time had tested and proved its importance. Many other public functionaries also, who had assailed it in the most vindictive manner, laid down their weapons, and cordially embraced, with strong protecting arms, its salutary provisions. Even bigotry and prejudice were forced into an unwilling acknowledgement of its utility, and were soon seen placing themselves in a situation where its benign influences would fall upon them.

In 1819, the most exciting question that ever agitated the councils of the nation, came before congress for adjustment—the question of admitting Missouri as a state into the Union. It was correctly called a ‘distracting question,’ for it caused a political earthquake, whose quaking influences were felt from one end of the land to the other; and even now its recollection causes a sensation of terror to come over those who were the immediate witnesses of it. Its contemplation made the stout-hearted patriot, and the immovably good of all classes, to turn pale with fear, who believed, that unless it could be calmed, it would engulph in irremediable ruin the liberties of the republic. It was not the simple question of admission which convulsed the country, but the terms with which it was proposed to connect her reception into the confederacy—terms involving another question, one which furnished all the fuel which kindled the fires of the most acrimonious strife, in every section of the nation—the question of slavery. The question of admission divided the country into two great parties. A large and respectable portion of her representatives at Washington, desired the admission to be unconditional, while the other wished it to be subject to certain conditions, among which was the following: that ‘all children of slaves, born within the said state after the admission thereof into the union, shall be free, but may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years, and the farther introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude is prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.’ With the certainty of intuition, Mr. Clay foresaw and predicted the alarming consequences which would flow from the fiery crucible of public debate, if this combustible condition was placed in it, and rang the tocsin peal of his voice in the ears of the nation. Although opposed to slavery, and declaring that if he were a citizen of Missouri, he would strenuously oppose any farther introduction of slaves into her, and provide for the emancipation of those already within her borders, still he believed we had no right to compel her to adopt our opinions, especially as she was unrepresented, and preferred leaving the subject of slavery to be settled by her alone.

The condition, however, was made the subject of the most stormy debate in the house, and carried. The bill containing it was sent to the senate, which returned it to the house, after rejecting the condition. Neither house would abandon its opinion, consequently the bill for admitting Missouri was defeated, and unfortunately the question was laid over for the action of the next session. This gave time greatly to augment and embitter the tempest of contention that had been raised over this matter in congress, which soon drew within its eddying vortex, in one fierce wrangle, the entire people. Their representatives, on the adjournment of congress, carried the infection among them in every direction, which created the most violent monomania relative to this condition, demanding the sacrifice of ease, domestic avocations, and even health itself. The press reeked with inflammatory appeals, and when they reässembled at the session of 1819–20, they were almost wafted to their seats on the wings of the furious commotion. Under such circumstances the discussion was renewed, which was conducted in such an angry manner as to add fresh fuel to the flame raging without. Resolutions in favor of, and opposed to the condition, were passed by several states, and placed on the tables in congress, which already groaned beneath the ponderous weight of similar documents, from associations and public meetings throughout the country. These, instead of shortening, tended only to prolong the debate. At one time, Mr. Clay spoke about four hours against the condition, but his speech, we regret to say, was never reported. Those who were in favor of subjecting her admission to the specific condition, brought forward the acts of congress passed in connection with the admission of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, into the union, which was coupled with a similar condition, or one even more restrictive in relation to slavery, as proof that it had a right to impose conditions on admitting a state. The principal argument of those opposed to the condition was derived from the constitution, which they contended bestowed on congress no power whatever over slaves, except what had already been exercised, in prohibiting their importation after the year 1808, that the slave states never would have joined the confederacy, if the power now claimed had been conferred by the constitution, that the day when it should be usurped, would be the last of the union, that Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, had been admitted into the union, unsubjected to any such condition, and that therefore Missouri should also be received on the same ground.

After the smoke of the political battle had somewhat cleared up, the vote was again taken on the question of restriction, which showed a majority in the senate against, and in the house for it. At the same time before congress was an application from Maine for admission to the privileges of a state, which the senate coupled with that of Missouri, but the house refused to sanction the union. Finally, the question was referred to a joint committee from both houses, who attempted to decide it by compromise. By this, Missouri was admitted without restriction, but 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 prohibited. Provided always, 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 fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.’

By this act of congress the territory was authorized to frame a constitution and state government, which should not infringe any article of the constitution of the United States, and required to transmit to congress ‘a true and attested copy of the same,’ when a final resolution of congress would be requisite to its admission into the union.

In June, 1820, the territory complied with these conditions, and introduced into her constitution an article making it the duty of the legislature ‘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 under any pretext whatever.’ This clause called forth the most violent censure of the friends of restriction, which caused the flames of contention to burst out anew and with redoubled violence. Mr. Clay found himself, in the autumn of 1820, obliged to resign his seat as speaker, and retire from congress, to repair by the practice of law, his fortune, which had been greatly diminished by heavy losses sustained by his becoming security for a friend.

At the commencement of the session of 1820–21, the constitution of Missouri was placed in the hands of a committee, who reported in favor of her admission. The senate passed an act to that effect, but the house rejected it. The admission of Missouri was opposed on the ground that free people of color were citizens of the state of their residence, and as such they possessed an undoubted right to remove to Missouri, and that her prohibition of their removal within her limits, was a flagrant violation of the constitution of the United States. On the other hand it was maintained that whether bond or free, the African race were not parties to our political institutions, that therefore free negroes and mulattoes were not citizens within the meaning of the constitution of the United States, and that even if the constitution of Missouri were repugnant to that of the United States, the latter was permanent and would overrule the conflicting provision of the former, without the interference of congress.

Such was the question which menaced a disruption of the union. Almost daily, in some form or other, it presented itself, wearing a more threatening aspect at each successive appearance, engendering in the hearts of the two contending parties, feelings of the most bitter animosity, clogging the wheels of government, and effectually impeding, and almost extinguishing all legislative action. Says one familiar with this question, ‘popular meetings, legislative resolves, and other demonstrations of feeling and passion were resorted to; crimination and recrimination followed; and separation, disunion, and civil war, with all its infinite of horrors, were the common topics of every village and hamlet. Had a few more materials of excitement been kindled, the work of destruction would have been instant and complete.

In this crisis, when the last fingerings of hope seemed to have departed, that an amicable adjustment of the question would be effected, all eyes were turned towards Mr. Clay, as the only person who could avert the calamities which seemed suspended over the nation. He reached Washington on the sixteenth of January 1821, and found congress in the greatest scene of confusion imaginable. Legislation was absolutely terminated. The most envenomed feelings of hatred rankled in the bosoms of the two parties, who, frowning darkly on each other, bore a stronger resemblance to two belligerent armies, with their weapons in their hands, impatiently waiting for the word to rush into the maddening conflict, than to companies of grave and sober legislators. He was immediately waited on by both parties, who expressed the strongest anxiety that the vexed question might be settled and entreated him to devise some method by which it might be consummated. He expressed his views freely, and urged them to select some common ground on which both parties could meet and harmonize their opinions. On the second day of February, he made a motion to commit the question to a committee of thirteen, to be chosen from both parties, a number suggested by the original states of the union, which was accepted. Mr. Clay, in a report submitted to the house on the tenth of February, by him as chairman of the committee of thirteen, introduced a resolution for the admission of Missouri, on the following conditions:

‘It is provided that the said state shall never pass any law preventing any description of persons from coming to or settling in the said state, who now are or may hereafter become citizens of any of the states of this union, and also that the legislature of the said state by a public act shall declare the assent of the state to this provision, and shall transmit to the president of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act, upon the receipt whereof, the president by proclamation shall announce the fact, whereupon and without any farther proceedings on the part of congress, the admission of the said state into the union shall be considered as complete, and it is provided further that nothing herein contained shall be construed to take from the state of Missouri, when admitted into the union, the exercise of any right or power which can now be constitutionally exercised by any of the original states.’ The report was made to include this provision with direct reference to those who opposed the admission in consequence of the repugnance of a clause of the constitution of Missouri to the constitution of the United States, which, if they were sincere in their opposition, would cause them to desist. The house took up the report on the twelfth, when Mr. Clay entered into a minute detail of the deliberations of the committee, the difficulties that attended them, and the causes which led to the adoption of the resolution in the report, and concluded by beseeching them to cherish a feeling of conciliation, and to temper their proceedings by moderation. The report was rejected in committee of the whole on the state of the union, but was afterwards adopted in the house. On the third reading of the resolution, another sharp debate ensued, which was terminated by Mr. Clay, who is represented as having reasoned, remonstrated, and entreated, that the house would settle the question. He is represented as having been almost the only individual who was collected and calm. While others were covered with the foam of fierce debate, and lashed into fury by the combined influences of political or personal animosity, he seemed like one dwelling in the region of perpetual serenity on some lofty mountain, and contemplating unmoved the storm that was raging and bursting around its base. ‘Every darker passion seemed to have died within him, and he looked down upon the maddening and terrific scene with that calm and sublime regret, and gave utterance to his thoughts in that high, majestic, and pathetic eloquence, which seemed almost to designate him as a superior being commissioned by heaven to warn our country against the sin of anarchy and blood.’ The resolution, notwithstanding his exertions, was lost.

On the fourteenth, the two houses met for the purpose of ascertaining the result of an election that had been held for president and vice president, and while the ceremony was being performed, a scene of confusion occurred, on the presentation of the votes of the electors for Missouri. The senate withdrew, and with much difficulty Mr. Clay finally succeeded in restoring order, when the senate, on its being announced to them that the house was ready to complete the business for which they were assembled, returned. On proclaiming the result, it appeared that James Monroe had received two hundred and thirty-one votes, including those of the electors from Missouri, and two hundred and twenty-eight, if these were excluded. While the president of the senate was announcing the result, two members of the house claimed the floor to inquire what disposition had been made of the votes of Missouri, whereupon a scene of confusion and turmoil ensued, that beggars description, and the house was compelled to adjourn, in order to put a period to it.

The rejection of the report of thirteen, both in and out of congress, was regarded as a disaster. Those who had been most active in effecting it, soon began to repent their rashness, and the blackness of despair seemed to be settling down upon the councils of the nation. Mr. Clay sagaciously concluded that the feelings of despondency which they began to evince, would, if allowed to take their course, accomplish what reason, and argument, and philosophy could not; that they would cause the headstrong to reflect, and retrace their steps. He had driven them to the very ‘ultima thule’ of argumentative debate, applying the lash of logic at every step, until they had become insensible to its infliction. ‘What is your plan as to Missouri,’ he would say to them. ‘She is no longer a territory. She is a state, whether admitted into the union or not. She is capable of self-government, and she is governing herself. Do you mean to force her permanently from the union? Do you mean to lose the vast public domain which lies within her limits? Do you mean to drive her back to a territorial condition? Do you intend to coërce her to alter her constitution? How will you do all this? Is it your design to employ the bayonet? We tell you frankly our views. They are, to admit her absolutely if we can, and if not, with the condition which we have offered. You are bound to disclose your views with equal frankness. You aspire to be thought statesmen. As sagacious and enlightened statesmen, you should look forward to the fearful future, and let the country understand what is your remedy for the evils which lie before us.’

Various propositions were submitted in both houses, for the purpose of healing the breach which every day seemed to be widening, but all fell short of accomplishing the object. Finally, on the twenty-second, Mr. Clay presented the following resolution:

‘Resolved, that a committee be appointed on the part of the house, jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the senate, to consider and report to the senate and house of representatives respectively, whether it be expedient or not, to make provision for the admission of Missouri into the union, on the same footing as the original states, and for the due execution of the laws of the United States within Missouri, and if not, whether any other, and what provision adapted to her actual condition ought to be made a law.’

This resolution was adopted in the house by a majority of nearly two-thirds, and in the senate by a much larger one. The committee, Mr. Clay proposed, should consist of twenty-three, a number answering to all the states in the union, and so exerted his influence in their selection, as to secure a majority favorable to the settlement of the whole matter, in the manner and form proposed.

The joint committees met on the twenty-fifth of February, 1821, and proceeded to consider and discuss the question of admission. Mr. Clay, with a vigilance that did not slumber for an instant, exerted himself to infuse into the members of the committees a portion of his own conciliatory spirit, exhorting them to mutual concession, and declared that it would be utterly futile to report any plan of adjustment in which they could not unanimously concur, when it should be submitted to the final test. So firmly convinced was he, that the effort which they were then making, was the last feasible one that could be made for the settlement of the question on which they were deliberating, as to cause him to address individually the members of the committees, in order to make such thorough preparation as to preclude the possibility of defeat. And it was found on the next day that such preparation had been made; the resolution was adopted by a vote of eighty-seven to eighty-one in the house, and despatched to the senate, which unhesitatingly agreed to it, and thus the question which had convulsed congress for three sessions, and nearly distracted the land, was at last settled, and mainly through the influence of Mr. Clay. The proclamation of the president was issued, and Missouri took her place among her sisters of the confederacy. This event was greeted with the highest demonstrations of joy, and Missouri, beautiful Missouri, from her majestic forests and broad prairies, from her ancient mounds and mighty rivers, pealed her loud anthems of grateful praise to her and her country’s deliverer, hailing him as the second Washington, as one who had plucked the brand of discord from the hands of ten millions of enraged and exasperated people, and put in its place the olive branch of peace. The incense of exulting hearts was lavished on Mr. Clay like rain. His agency in settling one of the most difficult and dangerous questions that ever has arisen since the adoption of our present constitution, was clearly seen, deeply and gratefully felt, and thus publicly acknowledged. No one then was so blind as not to see that it was his hand that rent the pall of gloom, which enshrouded the whole land. His labors and his incessant and health-destroying toils to bring this question to a happy consummation, constituted a topic of conversation which was in the mouth of every one. Although the journals of the day do not record the many speeches made by him on the occasion, yet it is reported that his exertions in speaking and acting were almost superhuman. If a stranger arrived in Washington, whose influence he thought could be made to bear favorably on the settlement of the question, he instantly endeavored to enlist it. Mr. Clay himself was heard to say, that so intense had become his excitement, and so exhausting his efforts, his life would in all probability have been sacrificed to them, if the admission of Missouri had been delayed a fortnight longer. There is no doubt, that he taxed his patriotism, his eloquence, his philanthropy, his intellect, and his every attribute of mind and body, to the utmost, and strained the bow of life almost to breaking, to accomplish this, and it is saying very little to observe, that a nation’s thanks are his due, and that his signal service, in allaying the most tremendous storm that passion, prejudice, and sectional feeling ever raised, has imposed a debt of gratitude upon her, which posterity alone can pay.

At the time of the greatest turbulence over the Missouri question, when the fury of the contending parties in congress had broken down every barrier of order and decency, and was rushing rampant over the field of debate, certain southern gentlemen in the house, headed by Mr. Randolph, concocted a plan for withdrawing the entire body of members from the slaveholding states, from its deliberations, and abandon the business to the representatives of the other states. Had this been carried out, anarchy, civil war, and the effusion of blood would have followed inevitably. About this time, when an amicable settlement was nearly despaired of, and when the house was in session one evening, Mr. Randolph approached Mr. Clay and said, ‘Mr. speaker, I wish you would leave the house. I will follow you to Kentucky, or any where else in the world.’ Mr. Clay, regarding him with one of his most searching looks for an instant, replied, in an under tone, ‘Mr. Randolph, your proposition is an exceedingly serious one, and demands most serious consideration; be kind enough to call at my room to-morrow morning, and we will deliberate over it together.’ Punctual to a minute, Mr. Randolph was there, and closeted with Mr. Clay, discussed for some time the then all absorbing question connected with the admission of Missouri. Mr. Clay maintained, with all the force of his fine colloquial powers, the plan of compromise, as the wisest and best which he could suggest, and, in his opinion, that could be suggested, declaring his sincere conviction that the slaveholding states might adopt it, without any sacrifice of principle or interest. On the other hand, Mr. Randolph contended that it could not and would not be adopted; that the slave states occupied a correct position, and would maintain it at all hazards, and would not proceed an inch towards a compromise. They finally separated without agreeing on any thing that was calculated to harmonize their action in congress. ‘Oh! Mr. Randolph,’ said Mr. Clay, as the former was about stepping from the house, ‘Mr. Randolph, with your permission I will embrace the present occasion to observe, that your language and deportment on the floor of the house, it has occurred to me, were rather indecorous and ungentlemanly on several occasions, and very annoying indeed to me, for, being in the chair, I had no opportunity of replying.’ Admitting that such, perhaps, might be the case, Mr. Randolph replied that he too had often been much vexed at witnessing Mr. Clay’s neglect to attend to him when speaking. Said he, ‘I have seen you often, when I have been addressing the chair, I have seen you often turn away your head and ask for a pinch of snuff.’ ‘Oh! you are certainly mistaken, Mr. Randolph, you are mistaken if you think I do not listen to you; although I frequently turn away my head, it is true, and ask for a pinch of snuff, still I hear every thing you say, when seeming to hear nothing, and I will wager, retentive as I know your memory to be, Mr. Randolph, that I can repeat as much of any of your recent speeches as you yourself can.’ ‘Well, I do not know but I am mistaken,’ he replied, ‘and suppose we drop the matter, shake hands, and become good friends again.’ ‘Agreed,’ said Mr. Clay, and extended his hand, which was cordially embraced by Mr. Randolph. They never spoke to each other, however, during the remainder of the session.

Soon after this meeting, Mr. Clay was successively, and without concert, informed by the late governor Edwards and general C. F. Mercer, the one a senator and the other a member of the house, that Mr. Randolph was present at and witnessed the death scene of the gallant and lamented commodore Decatur, that he remained gazing a long time upon his corpse, agitated with deep emotions, and that he had been heard to express a desire to have, and with Mr. Clay, an affair of honor similar to that which brought Decatur to his untimely end. This information naturally put Mr. Clay upon his guard, and ever after during the session, whenever he met Mr. Randolph, he refrained from addressing him.

It is said that Mr. Randolph used all his influence in trying to induce one of the gentlemen above mentioned not to agree to a settlement of the Missouri question, as he (Mr. Randolph) feared that this, if accomplished as it was desired, would secure Mr. Clay’s election to the presidency.

During the same session, and some time previous to their interview, Mr. Randolph accosted Mr. Clay with a look and manner betokening the deepest concern, exhibiting to him a letter couched in very abusive and insulting terms, threatening to cow-hide him, and asked Mr. Clay’s advice as to the course he should pursue in relation to it. ‘What caused the writer to send you such an insulting epistle, Mr. Randolph?’ said Mr. Clay. ‘Why, I suppose,’ said he, ‘it was in consequence of what I said to him the other day.’ ‘What did you say?’ ‘Why, sir, I was standing in the vestibule of the house, when the writer came up and introduced to me a gentleman who accompanied him, and I asked him what right he had to introduce that man to me, and told him that the man had just as good a right to introduce him to me, whereat he was very indignant, and said I had treated him scandalously, and turning on his heel went away. I expect that made him write the letter.’ ‘Do you not think that he was a little out of his head to talk in that way?’ replied Mr. Clay. ‘Why, I have been thinking about that,’ said Mr. Randolph, ‘I have my doubts respecting his sanity.’ ‘Well, that being the case, would it not be the wisest course not to bring the matter before the house? I will direct the sergeant-at-arms to keep a sharp look out for the man, and to cause him to be arrested, should he attempt any thing improper.’ Mr. Randolph expressed his acquiescence in the speaker’s opinion, and nothing more was heard of the subject.

On another occasion, when the same question was before the house, Mr. Randolph informed Mr. Clay that he had come to the conclusion to abandon his invective and caustic irony in debate, and in future to confine himself to pure argument; that he had come to this conclusion in consequence of the advice of chief justice Marshall. He tried pure argument, but was unsuccessful, not awakening any interest in those who listened to him. He finally fell back into his old eccentric, sarcastic track, where he was at home, and crowds flocked to hear him, as usual. In Mr. Randolph’s hands ridicule was a powerful weapon, and one which no member knew how to use better than he, but sound reasoning and logical disquisition he wielded awkwardly—they were untempered weapons when used by him, about as effective as a rush in the hands of a child. One day he came in contact with a very able debater, Mr. Sheffey, one of his colleagues from Virginia, who, in a playful sally, had made some remarks which aroused the irascible temper of Mr. Randolph, who replied to him and concluded by offering him the following morceau of advice. ‘My worthy colleague possesses talents of a high order, but they are not very versatile. They qualify him for a particular sphere only, beyond the limits of which nature never designed him to travel. That sphere is logic. In this he can do battle with the boldest, but when he transcends it, he has less power than a pigmy. Therefore, as a friend, I would in the spirit of kindness, advise him never to leave it for any other; but especially would I caution him, as he values his reputation and safety, never to venture within the unexplored and unsubjugated regions of wit, for whose labyrinths and intricacies he has neither taste nor talent. As no other motive but a tender solicitude for the gentleman’s welfare, has prompted this advice, I hope it will be received and appreciated accordingly.’ Mr. Sheffey, in reply, remarked that he did not like to remain in Mr. Randolph’s debt, and would therefore cancel the heavy demand which he owed the gentleman, for his exceedingly valuable advice, by returning the compliment. He accordingly advised him never to aspire after logic, as it was an instrument of whose use his ignorance was more than sophomoric, and that in his hand it was like a knife in the hands of a child. ‘In my opinion, from the armory of wit the facetious member may draw weapons every way adapted to his capacity, and I would therefore advise him never to resort to any other.’ When he concluded, Mr. Randolph sprang to his feet, and in his quick, off-hand way, said, ‘I will take back all that I have said, by way of advice, to my colleague, for he has given satisfactory evidence that he is a man both of logic and wit.’ The incident furnished much mirth to the house. The next day, Mr. Randolph recommenced the attack with increased bitterness, and was called to order several times by Mr. Clay, who, after repeated trials, succeeded in checking him. Mr. Sheffey was much excited, and was called to order also, when Mr. Clay observed that he would be out of order in replying, as he was, to any other member, except Mr. Randolph.

At one time, Mr. Randolph, in a strain of most scorching irony, had indulged in some personal taunts towards Mr. Clay, commiserating his ignorance and limited education, to whom Mr. Clay replied by saying, ‘sir, the gentleman from Virginia was pleased to say, that in one point, at least, he coincided with me—in an humble estimate of my grammatical and philological acquirements. I know my deficiences. I was born to no proud patrimonial estate from my father. I inherited only infancy, ignorance, and indigence; I feel my defects; but so far as my situation in early life is concerned, I may without presumption say, they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, however I deplore my inability to furnish to the gentleman a better specimen of powers of verbal criticism, I will venture to say my regret is not greater than the disappointment of this committee, as to the strength of his argument.’

The following incident aptly illustrates Mr. Clay’s readiness at repartee. At the time of the passage of the tariff bill, April sixteenth, 1824, as the house was about adjourning, a friend of the bill observed to Mr. Clay, ‘we have done pretty well to-day.’ ‘Very well, indeed,’ rejoined Mr. Clay, instantly, ‘very well; we made a good stand, considering we lost both our FEET;’ alluding to Mr. Foote, of New York, and Mr. Foot, of Connecticut, both having opposed the bill, who it was confidently expected but a short time previous would support it.

During Mr. Clay’s absence from congress, which, as has been before stated, was occasioned to furnish him an opportunity to repair pecuniary losses, he was appointed, in connection with Mr. Bibb, to attend the Virginia legislature, for the purpose of adjusting certain Kentuckian land claims. The land laws of Kentucky were a source of great perplexity and litigation, subjecting those who had settled there prior to her separation from Virginia, to great inconvenience and loss. In his appeal to the general assembly of Virginia, Mr. Clay manifested unusual anxiety to protect the interests of the occupants of the soil, in the state from which he was a delegate, and succeeded in awakening a corresponding feeling of sympathy in the hearts of those whom he addressed. He drew a vivid picture of the privations and hardships which the settler had to encounter, placed him before them in the attitude of bidding adieu to the ‘tombs and temples of his fathers,’ then followed him to the wilderness, and traced his toilsome progress, step by step, until he brought him to the period when he began to reap the reward of his labors. He exhibited him sitting at twilight in the door of his comfortable tenement, looking out upon his broad enclosures, the happy partner of his cares by his side, and his dear little ones enjoying their innocent pastimes around him, and almost made them see the heavings of his grateful heart, and the moistening of his eye, as he surveyed the abundance of domestic bliss, and peace, and plenty, which his industrious hand had gathered about him. This, said Mr. Clay, is the bright side of the picture; now let us look at the dark; and then, in his solemn, impressive, and inimitably graphic manner, with a quivering lip, and a hand tremulous with emotion, he pointed to the same group, yet he painted no happy look, he caused no shout of sportive joy to ascend, but he rendered audible the deep sigh, the suffocating sob, and piercing groan; he made almost visible the furrowed brow of toil-worn manhood wet with the dew of despair, a broken-hearted wife drowned in grief, surrounded by sorrowing childhood, all fixing a last look upon a home dear to them as their lives, as they were about to depart to rear a new abode in the uninviting wilderness. This is no picture of a heated imagination, said Mr. Clay, it is suggested by scenes of almost every day occurrence, and it is to prevent their occurrence that prompts us to attempt the adjustment of these conflicting ‘land claims.’ Equity, humanity, and benevolence, all urge this; they all mingle their voices of mercy, and beseech that when the settler has by his honest and industrious efforts acquired the comforts and blessings of social and domestic life, he shall be permitted to enjoy them, and not be in danger of being dispossessed by a prior claim to his domain, and of which he was ignorant. In one of his most pathetic strains, he attempted to quote the affecting lines of sir Walter Scott:

‘Lives there a heart so cold and dead,

That never to itself hath said—

This is my own, my native land!’

He commenced, but could not finish them; some words had escaped his memory, but without the least hesitation he pressed his hand upon his forehead a moment, in recalling them. All believed that this momentary hesitation was caused by the recollections of other years, which were swelling in his heart and checking utterance, and when he withdrew his hand from his brow and cast his tearful eyes over the assembly, and in his impassioned manner repeated the lines, there was one general gushing of tears, as if all hearts had been melted beneath his look and tone.

In the course of the year, Mr. Clay, in behalf of Kentucky, and B. W. Leigh, Esq., in behalf of Virginia, met at Ashland, and concluded a convention, which was ratified by the legislature of Kentucky, and by the house of delegates of Virginia, but was rejected in her senate, by a small majority.

Mr. Clay had now, during his three years absence from congress, realized his wishes in repairing his pecuniary losses, and at the earnest and repeated requests of his fellow citizens, accepted a renomination, and was again elected without opposition a member of the house of representatives.

In consequence of intense application to his professional duties, Mr. Clay’s health had become materially impaired; indeed his life was despaired of. During the summer of 1823, he had visited, without receiving much benefit, the Olympian Springs, in Kentucky, and submitted to a thorough course of medicine, but all remedial means failed to arrest what appeared to be a gradual decline, which was conducting him apparently rapidly to the period of his dissolution. He began to think seriously, as a last resort, on going south to spend the ensuing winter, but it was requisite for him to be in Washington in November, and his own feelings inclined him to be there at the commencement of the session, in case it were practicable. He finally, after consulting with his friends, abandoned the prescriptions of his physicians, procured a light carriage and a good saddle-horse, and riding, driving, and walking, leisurely made his way to the seat of government. When he reached Washington, he was nearly well.

At the opening of the eighteenth congress, on the first Monday of December, 1823, Mr. Clay was elected speaker to the house, over Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, the late speaker, by a vote of one hundred and thirty-nine to forty-two. Shortly after his election, the following beautiful jeu d’esprit appeared in the National Intelligencer.

“As near the Potomac’s broad stream, t’other day,

Fair Liberty strolled in solicitous mood,

Deep-pondering the future, unheeding her way,

She met goddess Nature beside a green wood.

‘Good mother,’ she cried, ‘deign to help me at need!

I must make for my guardians a Speaker to-day;

The first in the world I would give them.’ ‘Indeed!

When I made the first speaker, I made him of Clay.’”

Mr. Clay accepted the appointment in a brief but pertinent speech, in which he gave a succinct view of the duties of the chair, and presented the house his thanks for placing him in it.

In the course of the session, the subject of the Greek revolution came before congress. Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts, on the fifth of December, introduced it to the house, in a resolution ‘providing by law for defraying the expenses incident to the appointment of an agent or commissioner to Greece, whenever the president shall deem it expedient to make such appointment.’ This he sustained by a speech of great power. Mr. Clay brought to its support the same feelings, the same warm sympathies, and the same strength of argument that he had arrayed round the subject of South American independence. They both fought hard to procure the adoption of this resolution, but it was lost. The struggling Greek, however, Mr. Clay never lost sight of, and when he became secretary of state, succeeded in accomplishing that for them, in which he was defeated now.

While the question of recognition was before the house, Mr. Clay was violently assailed by a member from New Hampshire, recently arrived. It was thought his motive in doing this was to bring himself into notice, by attacking the most distinguished man in the house. He received such a rebuke from Mr. Clay, administered with mingled feelings of indignation and pity, as almost to wither his energies during the remainder of the session.

It will be recollected, that during this session, the great tariff measure was passed. An incident grew out of Mr. Clay’s exertions in its behalf, which occasioned no little amusement in Washington, at the time, and throughout Virginia. Mr. William B. Giles, since governor of Virginia, on the appearance of Mr. Clay’s tariff speech, published several articles entitled ‘The Golden Casket,’ in which he introduced Mr. Clay’s name pretty often, and in no very courteous connection. The articles were of course perused by Mr. Clay, who, aware of the foibles of their author, took no serious offence thereat, but set to work to manufacture amusement from them. He sat down in a comic mood one day, and wrote Mr. Giles a long letter, complimenting him on the vigor of his intellect, his great mental ability, and his accurate critical acumen, but praising him especially for those qualities of which he was utterly destitute. When it was completed, he showed it to Mr. Archer, of Virginia, and several other friends, all of whom enjoyed it immoderately, and urged him to send it to Mr. Giles, and accordingly he sent it. As had been anticipated, the old gentleman devoured it with the greatest gusto and satisfaction. It contained just what he most desired—praise of his weakest traits of character. He read it repeatedly, and at each successive reading his heart relented towards the author, to such a degree as to cause him to observe, that had he received the communication previous to the publication of his ‘Casket,’ he should not have spoken of Mr. Clay as he did in that work. Shortly after, he exhibited this letter to some of his intimate friends, to let them see in what high estimation he was held by the great orator and statesman, but unfortunately nearly the first one who read it, discovered the hoax played on him, and immediately circulated it. Curiosity to see the letter now pervaded the whole community, and some difference of opinion prevailed as to its true character. A few of Mr. Giles’ friends expressed their belief that it had been written in good faith, but most that it was intended for a joke at his expense. Quite a violent dispute grew out of it; one party instigated by angry, and the other by mirthful feelings. At length, Mr. Archer, who resided in the same district with Mr. Giles, returned from congress, and the true version of the matter was soon trumpeted through the community, which caused unusual merriment. This was too much for Mr. Giles, who sent his son, a lad of sixteen years of age, to demand an explanation of Mr. Clay. He received the boy very civilly, who made known to Mr. Clay the nature of his business, saying that he was commissioned by his father to ask if he were the author of that letter, at the same time exhibiting to him the famous epistle, and if he were, to demand his motives in writing it. When he had concluded his interrogations, Mr. Clay coolly replied, ‘tell your father that I shall make no explanation to him through his own son. If he will employ a proper messenger, I will render him another answer.’ The lad departed, and nothing more was heard from Mr. Giles.

On the fifteenth of August, 1824, general Lafayette, the nation’s guest, arrived at New York, and on the tenth of December following, was introduced to the house of representatives by a select committee appointed for the purpose, and was received by Mr. Clay, in an apposite and beautiful address, of which the following is an extract. ‘The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that providence would allow the patriot after death, to return to his country, and to contemplate the intermediate change that had taken place, to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population. General, your present visit to the United States, is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst of posterity. Every where you must have been struck with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since you left us. Even this city, bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest which then covered its site. In one respect you find us unaltered, and that is, in the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to your departed friend, the father of his country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates in the field and the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing you, which I now exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, will be transmitted with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to the latest posterity.’

To this address, the general replied in a manner which evinced that he had been most deeply affected by it; indeed, it was calculated to thrill his heart with proud joy, conveying to him as it did a rich tribute of gratitude from a mighty nation, expressed in the full, silvery voice of sincerity and affection, whose every tone sank into his soul with the power of a warm welcome. He contracted a strong attachment for Mr. Clay, which existed to the day of his death.

At this period, Mr. Clay’s influence had reached a commanding height. His control over the legislation of the United States, was unquestionably greater than that of any other individual, not even excepting the executive himself. Although Mr. Clay disagreed with president Monroe on the great measures of national policy, internal improvements, and the tariff, and also respecting the mode of recognizing South American independence, still, the latter, entertaining the most profound regard for his ability, and appreciating the value of his services to his country, repeatedly offered him a seat in his cabinet, and the choice of all the foreign missions. Justice to Mr. Clay’s disinterested patriotism demands it to be recorded, that his honest conviction, that he could be more serviceable to his country by remaining in her popular assembly, than in representing her abroad, was one of the most weighty motives which prevented him from planting his foot upon one of the many stepping-stones, to place and power, which the hand of executive favor had, unsolicited, laid before him. The differences of opinion existing between him and Mr. Monroe, never interrupted for a moment, the amicable relations of social intercourse which they mutually maintained.

Towards the close of his second term, which expired in 1825, the question of the next presidency was generally agitated. As candidates for this office, Messrs. J. Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford, had been brought forward by their respective friends. As early as November, 1822, in a meeting of the members of the legislature of Kentucky, Mr. Clay had been nominated to it, and a short time after, he was nominated also in meetings of the members of the legislatures of Missouri, Ohio, and Louisiana. Enthusiastic expressions, approbating this nomination, issued from large assemblies throughout the land, and as the period for the election approached, there were many cheering indications that it would be carried in his favor. But efforts were resorted to, not the most creditable to those who employed them, for the purpose of defeating his election. About the commencement of the canvass, reports were industriously circulated, calculated to diminish his support. Among them was one announcing his withdrawal from the contest, for which the unscrupulous exertions of many of his opponents gained extensive credence, notwithstanding our late lamented chief magistrate, and many other friends of Mr. Clay in Ohio, published a counter report, declaring that he ‘would not be withdrawn from the contest but by the fiat of his Maker.’ The probabilities, however, of his success, continued to increase, until the time of the choice of electors in Louisiana, by the legislature of that state. In that body, Mr. Clay’s popularity was such as to secure him the vote of the state; this was evident from the fact of his nomination by it. The members of the legislature friendly towards the other candidates, endeavored to effect a compromise with those who supported Mr. Clay; but the latter, aware of their strength, rejected it. The compromise proposed to give him four of the five electoral votes to which the state was entitled, which would have carried him into the house of representatives, to the exclusion of Mr. Crawford, as one of the highest three candidates, from which, according to the constitution, it would be obliged to make a selection. Unfortunately, about the time when the state of Louisiana made choice of her electors, three of Mr. Clay’s friends became so seriously indisposed, as to preclude their attendance on the legislature. This event furnished the friends of Mr. Adams and general Jackson an opportunity to form a coälescence, which they eagerly embraced, and divided the five votes so as to give the former three and the latter two. This consequently excluded Mr. Clay from the house, into which, had he gone, there is no doubt that his unbounded popularity in that body would have secured his election to the office. When, however, it became apparent, that no election of president would be made by the people, with a nobleness and a nice sense of honor, so characteristic of him, he resolved not to go into the house, but to withdraw his name, and at a time too when the prospect was of his being one of the highest three candidates. With great magnanimity, therefore, he put into execution his resolution, assigning to several of his intimate friends his reasons, among which was the belief, that by his doing so, the choice would be more readily and pacifically made. Such generous and self-sacrificing conduct, while it illustrates the purity and strength of his patriotism, is worthy of all admiration and commendation.

Near the close of December, 1824, the result of the canvass was ascertained, by which it appeared that the three candidates returned to the house, were Andrew Jackson, John Q. Adams, and W. H. Crawford, by votes of ninety-nine, eighty-four, and forty-one.

Mr. Clay’s position now was exceedingly delicate as well as important. He had it in his power, by placing himself at the head of the party who went with him in the house, to control its choice of the three candidates returned to it. This he well knew, as also their friends, who beset him continually and in every possible manner, to secure his influence in behalf of their favorite candidates. His predilection was well known to his personal friends, but he sedulously refrained from making it the basis of any caucusses or intrigues, which, knowing the unhealthy excitement always generated by them, he desired to avoid. During the several weeks immediately pending the election, the warm partisans of the parties supporting Messrs. Jackson and Adams, approached him in the most obsequious manner, expressing the deepest regret that he had not been returned to the house, and lavished on him the most fulsome flatteries and mawkish caresses. After trying these for some time ineffectually, finding the more than Roman firmness of the statesman unmoved by them, they attempted to coërce him into a compliance with their wishes, and the most unprincipled attempts were made to accomplish this. He was attacked through the medium of anonymous letters incessantly, filled with abusive and menacing language. These arrived almost hourly, from every part of the country; indeed, the enginery of compulsion discharged their missiles at him from every fortress of his political opponents, in the hope of making him espouse their cause. Vain hope! A foolish waste of power, as they might have known. It were easier for the infant of a day with his puny hand to bow the oak of a thousand years, than for the combined efforts of his enemies to cause him to yield an inch of the high ground he had taken. In writing to a friend, he thus alludes to the blandishments and brow-beatings which he received at this time. Of the former, he said, ‘I am enjoying whilst alive, the posthumous honors which are usually awarded to the illustrious dead;’ and of the latter, he remarked. ‘I bore them, I trust, as your representative ought to have borne them, and as became me.’ But the basest attempts which they made, one which capped the climax of their depraved assaults, and which was intended to fix the foul stigma of disgrace indelibly upon their victim, was embraced by a letter published in a Philadelphia newspaper, called the ‘Columbian Observer.’ Without any preamble, this charged Mr. Clay with the deliberate intention of selling his vote to the highest bidder. This letter purported to have been written by a member of congress from Pennsylvania, and declared that the terms of a contract had been settled, which gave Mr. Clay the secretaryship, for which he was to bring his influence to bear in electing Mr. Adams. This allegation, the former lost no time in denying, in a communication published in the National Intelligencer, over his own signature, in which he pronounces the author of the letter ‘a base and infamous calumniator,’ and called upon him, whoever he might be, to come out boldly, avow and sustain the charge. This was answered a few days after, by a member of congress from Pennsylvania, Mr. George Kremer, who admitted himself the author, and also his readiness to substantiate his assertions in relation to the character of Mr. Clay. Subsequent developements have made it more than probable that Kremer did not write the epistle in question, his declaration to the contrary notwithstanding, but that it was written by the individual who sustained the ‘Columbian Observer,’ John H. Eaton, and the latter did not deny the authorship, although Mr. Clay directly charged him with it. The evidence elicited was such as to show Mr. Kremer’s entire passivity in the whole matter—a mere machine, moved by the hands of the vile plotters behind the scene, made to speak and act as they directed, and caused to father the villainous slander, which was generated amid the slime of their hearts, as destitute of honor and patriotism as the icebergs of Greenland of verdure. This supple tool had the frankness (to his credit be it spoken,) to acknowledge afterwards to Mr. Crowninshield, a member of congress from Massachusetts, that he was not the originator or author of it.

The more effectually to vindicate himself, Mr. Clay desired to place the subject before the house. To this he was prompted by his own feelings, and also by the belief that the dignity and honor of the body over which he presided, demanded that a complete investigation should be instituted, of those gross charges which had caused such disreputable imputations to rest upon his character. In accordance, therefore, with his request, a committee was appointed on the fifth of February, 1825, consisting of many leading members in the house, all of whom were his political opponents. Probably the matter had now gone farther than Mr. Kremer wished or expected it to go, as he began to manifest considerable uneasiness respecting the result, notwithstanding he had but a day or two previous arisen in his place and substantially reiterated the contents of the communication he had acknowledged, stating that ‘if, upon an investigation being instituted, it should appear that he had not sufficient reason to justify the statements he had made, he trusted he should receive the marked reprobation which had been suggested by the speaker. Let it fall where it might, he was willing to meet the inquiry and abide the result.’ And yet, when it was proposed to adopt a course which would establish the truth or falsehood of his statements, which would test this willingness ‘to meet the inquiry,’ he shrank back and shuffled under a mean subterfuge. The committee, in their report, declared that Mr. Kremer refused to appear before, or communicate to them any facts of which he had virtually admitted himself to be in possession, and protested against acting either as an accuser or a witness, although strongly urged thereto by them, and not feeling authorized to use compulsion in procuring evidence, they suffered the subject to drop. While it was in the hands of the house, he was heard to remark to Messrs. Brent and Little, one of whom was a warm friend of general Jackson, that he never intended to charge Mr. Clay with corruption; that he had transferred or could transfer the votes or interests of his friend; and that he was among the last men in the nation to make such a charge against Mr. Clay. To this declaration both these gentlemen certified. Although Mr. Kremer was weak enough to allow himself to be made the organ of the abominable conspirators, and, as it appears, a little contrary to his convictions of truth and honor, he could not stifle the compunctious visitations of conscience, which he experienced on account of the abusive treatment which, through him, had fallen on an unoffending individual, and that individual one of the main pillars of the republic. He often expressed his intention of apologizing to Mr. Clay, and even went so far as to prepare an apology, containing a minute explanation of all the circumstances connected with the whole affair, from its inception to its completion, and which fully exonerated Mr. Clay from every charge brought against him in the letter. Information of his repentings and intended reparation soon came to the ears of the grand instigators, which carried panic to their cowardly hearts, and caused them to quake, lest their party-colored covering, composed of the very quintessence of meanness, baseness, and falsehood, should be stripped from them, and their nakedness exposed to the view and the derision of the world. To prevent such dreaded consequences, they began instantly to bestir themselves, at what expense of principle or integrity, they stopped not to consider. Their first efforts were very naturally directed towards the instrument of their machinations, who was seized, the apology taken from, and a muzzle fastened upon him, to prevent the slightest utterance of his repentant emotions. They then drew up a labored statement in his name, and laid it before the house, reeking with duplicity, and infecting the very atmosphere with its nauseating effluvia. Who can contemplate the loathsome picture of depravity, worthy of the arch fiend himself, which those evidently instigated by him, painted and attempted to suspend on the walls of the nation’s dwelling-place—the holy home of Liberty—in desecrating and contaminating proximity to the canvass emblazoning the form and the features of the ‘father of his country,’ and the glorious scenes of his revolutionary valor, without mingled feelings of disgust, indignation, and regret?—what patriotic heart, what lover of liberty and political virtue, in view of the fountain of immaculate purity, on the one hand, whose streams went forth incessantly, to fertilize, and gladden, and bless a mighty nation, and their diabolical attempts, on the other, to pollute and blot it from existence, without sending up the fervent ejaculation, ‘Heaven save my country from falling into such hands’?

After the dust and fog created by their unnatural endeavors had passed away, the object of their malice appeared in his proper place, as unmoved and serene as though the clangor of their strife had not saluted his ears, and as unaffected by the showers of their envenomed arrows, as though he had been sitting in his native forests amid the rain-like fall of autumnal leaves. Their loud and discordant clamors did not for a moment interrupt his meditations concerning that important, that solemn duty, which had devolved upon him, in the performance of which he had resolved that no arts of wheedling or coercion should influence him; that no man nor set of men should act as his casuist; and that he would not select from the numerous casuistical proposals, which party zeal had placed before him, one that should determine the mode of its discharge. No! he chose to settle that question at a tribunal from which there was no appeal—at the tribunal of Nature, which Nature’s God had erected in his own bosom. To that he resorted; indeed, it was one of his most favorite resorts; and spreading out this momentous question before her bar, we hear him exclaim, ‘My position in relation to the presidential contest is highly critical, and such as to leave me no path on which I can move without censure. I have pursued in regard to it the rule which I always observe in the discharge of my public duty. I have interrogated my conscience as to what I ought to do, and that faithful guide tells me that I ought to vote for Mr. Adams. I shall fulfil its injunctions. Mr. Crawford’s state of health, and the circumstances under which he presents himself to the house, appear to me to be conclusive against him. As a friend to liberty, and to the permanence of our institutions, I cannot consent, in this early stage of their existence, by contributing to the election of a military chieftain, to give the strongest guarantee that this republic will march in the fatal road which has conducted every other republic to ruin. I am, and shall continue to be, assailed by all the abuse which partisan zeal, malignity and rivalry can invent. I shall view without emotion these effusions of malice, and remain unshaken in my purpose. What is a public man worth, if he will not expose himself, on fit occasions, for the good of his country?’ Yes! he did act according to the response which that ‘faithful guide’ gave to his sincere interrogation, and had the anathemas of the world been thundered in his ears, they would not have driven him from thus acting. He deemed her will paramount to that of his constituents, who had desired him to vote for general Jackson. They afterwards, however, not only justified, but highly approved—as must every good man—his decision. It would be an act of superfluity to specify minutely the grounds of Mr. Clay’s preference. He had obtained occular evidence of Mr. Crawford’s inability to sustain the responsibilities and perform the arduous duties of the chief magistracy. He ascertained it to be a fact, but one carefully concealed from the community, that Mr. Crawford had become almost entirely debilitated by paralysis, both physically and mentally, which itself, aside from the knowledge which he possessed, that his influence could not elect him, was sufficient to induce his rejection. Between general Jackson and Mr. Adams, it cannot be supposed that Mr. Clay would long hesitate to choose. His determination had been taken a long time previous to his knowing the result of the election by the people. He had repeatedly given utterance to that determination to friends and foes, at home and at Washington, in public and in private, declaring that no supposable contingency could arise to constrain him to vote for general Jackson, and even went so far as to say, that if, in consequence of his well known and often promulged opinion of the character, acquirements, and abilities, of that individual, he should sustain him, he would subject himself to the just contempt and reprobation of all parties. Neither did he nor his friends look for Mr. Clay’s support, and said that if he did give it, he would be guilty of duplicity. It is very natural to suppose, that a consultation of his experience would be sufficient to cause Mr. Clay to prefer Mr. Adams. He had been associated with the latter in many situations of trust and responsibility, requiring the most consummate skill and statesmanship, and he had invariably found him more than sufficient for them all. He had always found him prepared for any emergency or exigency, however suddenly or unexpectedly it might arise. But in reference to the military chieftain, its consultation elicited evidence just the reverse; he searched in vain for a page recording his diplomatic wisdom, sound expositions of governmental policy, and accurate estimates of presidential qualifications; it was wanting. But on many he found indelibly written, acts of unwarrantable and unjustifiable usurpation, evincing a disposition to trample on law, humanity, and the constitution itself. But general Jackson’s supposed hostility to internal improvements and protection to domestic manufactures, had these enumerated deficiences and defects in his character been wanting, would have been sufficient to exclude him from receiving Mr. Clay’s suffrage. These cherished systems, which he regarded as of no subordinate importance to the nation, and to establish which he had expended the prime of his life, he knew, found a firm supporter in Mr. Adams. This fact furnished the fundamental reason (if any one may be thus denominated) which determined his choice. Mr. Clay therefore gave Mr. Adams his vote, who was elected president. He immediately tendered the former the office of secretary of state, which was accepted with that promptitude and decision which he always manifested in entering upon the discharge of those duties to which he believed his country called him. By this act he proved himself consistent with his advocacy of the claims of Mr. Adams to the presidency, under whom he believed that he could render more efficient service, than in his present position in the house. There can be no other reason assigned, which carries with it even the shadow of validity, inducing him to accept a place in the cabinet of the president. The same place had been tendered him by Messrs. Madison and Monroe, and had been declined, on the ground of his belief that he could make himself more serviceable to the nation, by continuing where he was. The great measures of national policy which were suspended upon his shoulders, at the time they desired to transfer him from that body to their cabinets, he had disposed of, and had also happily removed most of the serious impediments and obstructions which then greatly retarded the wheels of legislation, so that there was a fair prospect that they would roll on smoothly, without requiring his immediate aid. He could, therefore, seek with safety another sphere, and one where he could exert a more extended and salutary influence.

In relation to his having bargained for the office of secretary of state, Mr. Adams speaks, in reply to an address from a committee of gentlemen, expressing their confidence in his purity and patriotism, and a hope that the evening of his days would be passed in that tranquillity which is only the lot of the good. He said that upon Mr. Clay, ‘the foulest slanders have been showered. Long known and appreciated, as successively a member of both houses of your national legislature, as the unrivalled speaker, and at the same time, most efficient leader of debates in both of them, as an able and successful negotiator for your interests in war and in peace with foreign powers, and as a powerful candidate for the highest of your trusts. The department of state itself was a station, which, by its bestowal, could confer neither profit nor honor upon him, but upon which he has shed unfading honor by the manner in which he has discharged its duties. Prejudice and passion have charged him with obtaining that office by bargain and corruption. Before you, my fellow citizens, in the presence of our country, and of heaven, I pronounce that charge totally unfounded. This tribute of justice is due from me to him, and I seize with pleasure the opportunity, offered me by your letter, of discharging the obligation.

‘As to my motives for tendering to him the department of state when I did, let that man who questions them come forward. Let him look around among statesmen and legislators of this nation, and of that day. Let him then select and name the man, whom, by his preëminent talents, by his splendid services, by his ardent patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, by his fervid eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, by his long experience in the affairs of the union, foreign and domestic, a president of the United States, intent only upon the honor and welfare of his country, ought to have preferred to Henry Clay. Let him name the man, and then judge you, my fellow citizens, of my motives.’

Five years subsequent to his election, in a letter to a friend, Mr. Adams referred to the above testimonial of Mr. Clay’s talents and character, as one from which he could deduct nothing, but to which he could add much. He also said, that such was his opinion of Mr. Clay’s abilities, that he had expressed to him his candid intention, at the time he resigned the speakership, in 1820, if a vacancy should occur in the mission to Great Britain, he should deem it his duty to recommend the nomination of him to that office. He also speaks of the great despatch and facility, with which Mr. Clay transacted business, notwithstanding the feebleness of his health during the whole time. Indeed, he regarded him as a perfect model of fitness for the office to which he called him, and as having honored and adorned it with the intellectual wealth of his fertile mind. No station in which he was placed, suffered, either through remissness, or deficiency. The fact that his entrance to office was always hailed with general joy, and his departure witnessed with regret, furnished the highest possible compliment to his ability and eminence. Had we space, and felt disposed, we could multiply individual complimentary expressions to almost any extent, but this is not necessary, for his fame and praise are in the mouth of the world. The period of Mr. Clay’s speakership may be adduced as one of the most brilliant of his public life. He illustrated it by all the lofty attainments of one profoundly versed in the arts of government, under the guidance of patriotism, that subordinated every thing to its ardor and devotion. During his occupancy of the chair, from 1811 to 1825, except two years of voluntary absence, his decisions, though prompt, were rarely reversed. Though a warm partisan, he never allowed his own particular views to influence them in the least, and both friends and foes unite in declaring, that their rendition was far removed from all suspicion of party or venal considerations, in short; that on them all was stamped impartiality, in everduring characters. But Mr. Clay, besides rendering himself conspicuous for the correctness of his decisions, won also the regard and confidence of the house for the courteously stern manner in which he governed and guided its deliberations. He combined, in a preëminent degree, the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re. There was an indescribable something in his look, gesture, and tone of voice, added to his dignity and self-possession, that always restrained and conciliated the turbulent and inimical, and bound to him, with the silken ligaments of love, the peaceable and friendly. At no period of our political history, were subjects so momentous and dangerous in their nature, and so difficult to adjust, brought before congress, as during that of which we are speaking. The political heavens had never been so black, nor the political ocean heaved his surges so high, before, and had not he been there to spread the bow of serenity upon the one, and calm the wild fury of the other, it is hardly too much to say, that our liberties, our institutions, and our every thing nationally valuable, would have been swept by the besom of their rage into the tomb of chaos, if not into oblivion. But he was there, ruling, tempering, guiding, and blessing. He seemed to act as though he were conscious that his country stood at his side, with her piercing eyes fixed full upon him, reading the secrets of his heart,—as though he heard her voice sounding in his ears, imploring and beseeching him to guard and watch over, faithfully, those interests which she had so unreservedly placed in his hands, and whenever he lifted his arm, or opened his mouth, it seemed to be for the single purpose of executing her revealed will. No wonder that in view of such unparalleled patriotism and disinterestedness, applause should be extorted from the mouth of enmity itself. No wonder that it should be heard saying, ‘Mr. Clay accomplished what no other man could have performed.’

Many incidents occurred during his speakership, highly illustrative of his playfulness, wit, and readiness, of which the following may serve as a specimen.

On one occasion, the late general Alexander Smyth, of Virginia, a gentleman of unusual ability and erudition, had been speaking a long time, fatiguing and vexing the house with the length and number of his quotations, and citations of authorities, and justified his unbearable prolixity by saying to Mr. Clay, who was seated near him, ‘you, sir, speak for the present generation, but I speak for posterity.’ ‘Yes,’ he immediately replied, ‘and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival of your audience!’

On another, the house was harangued by the late governor Lincoln, of Maine, in his usual eloquent, but verbose and declamatory manner. He was considering the revolutionary pension bill, and replying to an argument which opposed it on the ground that those to whom it proposed to extend pecuniary aid, might perhaps live a long time, and thus cause heavy drafts to be made upon the treasury. In one of his elevated flights of patriotic enthusiasm, he burst out with the exclamation, ‘soldiers of the revolution, live forever!’ Mr. Clay succeeded him, in favor also of the humane provision, but did not respond to his desire relative to the length of the lives of those worthies for whose benefit it was devised, and when he closed, turned suddenly towards Mr. Lincoln, and, with a smile upon his countenance, observed, ‘I hope my worthy friend will not insist upon the very great duration of these pensions which he has suggested. Will he not consent, by way of a compromise, to a term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, instead of eternity?’

We have seen, that the contest which resulted in placing Mr. Adams at the head of the nation, was one of unusual violence, and in waging which, the most unscrupulous means were employed; and that one of its most unredeeming features was the unmitigated calumny and abuse, which they heaped upon Mr. Clay. But soon after the combatants had retired from the field of conflict, and resumed their various avocations, the jarring elements of political faction became quiescent, the blood of the ambitious demagogue fell from its fever heat to its ordinary temperature, and the foul slanderer, fearing exposure, had slunk away to his dark retreat, to deplore his discomfiture, and concoct new materials. Every thing gave omen that a season of peace and grateful repose would be enjoyed. It was thought that no lover of these and of good order, much less a patriot, could be found, who would be base and foolhardy enough to stir up the expiring embers of strife, and add fresh fuel to their flames. Those who entertained this belief, however, found themselves mistaken. They saw one coming forth, one who boasted long and loud of patriotism and devotion to country, and, stooping from his supposed lofty eminence of political virtue, pick up the relaxed bow of slander, and discharge the most envenomed arrows of malice and detraction, at one of the fairest ornaments of that very country, to whose interests he professed himself so strongly attached. To their utter astonishment, they beheld, in that individual, thus anomalously engaged, no less a personage than that of ‘the hero of New Orleans.’ General Jackson had the distinguished honor of reviving the thousand times refuted report of ‘bargain and corruption,’ in relation to Mr. Clay’s acceptance of the department of state. A letter, dated March eighth, 1825, went the rounds of the newspapers, pretending to give the substance of a conversation which passed between the writer and general Jackson, to the effect that Mr. Clay’s friends in congress had proposed to his friends, that if they would agree that Mr. Adams should not be retained in the department of state, that then their (Mr. Clay and his supporters) influence should be immediately used to elect general Jackson, who, it affirmed, rejected the proposal with becoming indignation. Soon after the appearance of this communication, the author, Mr. Carter Beverley, addressed general Jackson, requesting him to confirm it, who replied, June fifth, 1827, by a letter directly charging the friends of Mr. Clay with having proposed to him, through a member of congress, to give him their support in case he (general Jackson) would pledge himself not to retain Mr. Adams as aforesaid, and who intimated that the proposition originated with Mr. Clay; and, to give the last finishing stroke, and one which should ensure it credence, he went so far in that reply as to state, that immediately after the rejection of the proposition, Mr. Clay came out openly for Mr. Adams. He also declared, that, in reply to this proposition, he stated, that before he would reach the presidential chair by such ignoble means, ‘he would see the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay and his friends, and himself with them!’ The name of the member of congress was demanded by Mr. Clay, and that of Mr. Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was given, a warm personal friend of general Jackson’s. His version of the matter proved the assertion of the latter a barefaced falsehood, unsupported by even the semblance of truth. Mr. Buchanan flatly and promptly denied, that such a proposition had been made through him as had been alleged, and entirely exonerated Mr. Clay and his adherents from all connection with it. He stated, that, during the month of December, 1824, hearing it currently reported in Washington, that general Jackson, in case he was elected president, designed to continue Mr. Adams as secretary of state, and thinking that such a report, if not properly contradicted, would operate detrimentally to his interests, he called on him, and expressed his opinion in relation thereto, and that the general declared, that he entertained a high opinion of Mr. Adams, but had never said any thing in relation to retaining or rejecting him as secretary of state, and that he (Mr. Buchanan) was authorized to state, that such was the result of the interview. Mr. Buchanan also declared his honest and sincere conviction, that ‘general Jackson did not believe or entertain the most distant idea that he came on behalf of Mr. Clay or of his friends, until the publication of the letter making that accusation.’