The works of Henry Clay, comprising his life, correspondence and speeches

Front matter

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Chapter I Faob

Mr. Clay's Early History. — His Birth, Parentage, and Family History.— Death of his Father.— The Widow's Cares.— Schoolmaster and Schoolhouse of the Slashes.— The Mill-Boy of the Slashes. — Second Marriage of Henry Clay's Mother. — Kindness of his Father-in-Law. — His Entrance on a Commercial Apprenticeship at Richmond. — Removal to a Clerkship in a Public OfRce. — First Impressions of Fellow-Clerks. — Change of their Opinion. — Henry attracts the Attention of Chancellor Wythe. — Becomes his Amanuensis. — Advantages of this Position. — His Tastes and Intellectual Improvement. — His Fame in the Rhetorical Society. — Purity of his Character. — His popularity. — Removal of his Mother and Family to Kentucky. — Letter from his Mother. — Basis of his Character. — His Study of the Law. — Admission to Practice. — Removal to Kentucky 39

CHAPTER n

Mr. Clay's Domestic History.— His Marriage.— His Children.— His Domestic Afflictions. — His Domestic Character. — His Character as a Master, Neighbor, Citizen, and Man of Feeling. — Ashland and its Hospitalities. — Mr. Clay's Estate and Pecuniary Condition. . 53

Chapter III

Mr. Clay's Moral Character and Religious Sentiments. — His Moral Character Formed Independent of Common Rules. — High Tone of his Moral Principles. — A Leader, not a Follower.— An Example, not a Copjnst. — His Pecuniary Morals.— Morals of his Domestic Relations. — Of his Social Relations. — Of his Politics. — Wherein his Morals are above the Common Level. — His Religious Sentiments.— His Character admired by the Young. . . .67

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1.

Mr. Clay and the War of 1812.— His Position and Influence in the War. — A Leader. — " Free Trade and Seamen's Rights." — Peace of Ghent. 181

Chapter X

Mr. Clay on Domestic Slavery. — His Feelings as a Man, and his Principles as a Statesmen, on this Subject. Mr. Clay an Emancipationist. — His Position. — Political Abolition in Free States. — Mr, Clay's Views of it 208

Chapter XI

Mr. Clay the Advocate of Universal Freedom.— British Claims to Monopoly in Philanthropy.— Letter of Richard Rush to Mr. Clay. —Mr. (May the First, and at last the Successful Advocate of South American Independence.— History of his Action on that Subject. — Greece 232

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. ui

CHAPTER XII FASa

The Cause of Great Effects.— Debate on the Seminole Campaign.— Position of Mr. Monroe and his Cabinet on that Question. —An Attempt to defame Mr. Monroe,- Mr. Clay's denunciation of General Jackson's Conduct 274

Chapter XIII

The Missouri Question.— Its Nature and Importance.— Agitates the Country.— Excitement m Congress. — Attempts to arrest the Extension of Slavery.— Continuance and Danger of the Controversy.— Mr. Clay's Efforts for Compromise,— His Sway in Congress. —His Success 298

Chapter XIV

The Great Conspiracy,— General Jackson's renewal of the Charge against Mr. Clay in 1844.— Statement of the Charge.— Present Position of the Question,— Mr. Adam's Eighth-of-January Party m honor of General Jackson.— Its Effect —Nomination of General Jackson for the Presidency.— The Result— Examination of the Claims to Plurality of Votes,— Mr. Clay defrauded.— Character of the Jackson Party,— Delicacy of Mr. Clay's Position in the House of Representatives on the Presidential Question,— Menaces,— First Opening of the Plot,— Mr. Kremer's Letter to the Columbian Observer.— Mr. Clay's Card.— Mr. Kremer's Card.- Mr. Clay's Appeal to the House.— Mr. Forsyth's Resolution for a Committee of Inquiry.— The Debate,— Report of the Committee,— Mr. Kremer's Decline to answer.— Unexpected Position of Affairs.— Who wrote Mr. Kremer's Letter of Decline.— Position of the Conspirators and Mr. Clay at the End of the First Stage. . . .309

Chapter XV

The Great Conspiracy.— General Jackson comes out as the Public Accuser of Mr. Clay.— The FayettevilleLetter.— General Jackson's Letter to Carter Beverley.— The Manner of its being made public. —Mr. Clay's Reply to it in an Address to the Public— General Jackson's Address to the Public— These Documents considered. . 340

Chapter XVI

The Great Conspiracy,— Mr. Buchanan's Answer to General Jackson, — Mr, Markley's Reply to Mr Buchanan — Major Eaton's Letter on the same Subject, — Letters of Mr. Buchanan to the United States Telegraph.— Extracts from Mr. Clay's Address to the Public in December, 1837.— The Conspirators Tried by their own Evidence ^"^^ iV CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

Chapter XVII Pagb

The Great CoNSPraxcY.— Mr. Clay's Position in the Case. — The Voice of many Witnesses.— Proof of a Negative. .... 396

Chapter XVIII

The Great Conspiract.— Unity of the Plot,— Another Question. — Witnesses. — Singular Result. — Truth of the Whole Matter. — Proposals of Bargain made to Mr. Clay. — One through Mr. Buchanan. — One through General Houston. — Crime and Consequences of the Plot 426

Chapter XIX

Mr. Clay's Internal Improvement Policy.— The American System. — Objects of Internal Improvement. — The Great Barrier between the East and West. — Cumberland Road. — The Policy Modified by Opposition, but Triumphant. 450

Chapter XX

Mr. Clay's Public Land Policy.— His Report in 1832.— Reasons of its Reference to the Committee on Manufactures. — Statistical Tables. — Extracts from Mr. Clay's Speeches. — General Jackson's Pocketing the Land Bill. — The Ai'gument 475

Chapter XXI

Political Character op Mr. Clay's Times.— Mr. Clay a Jeffersonian Democrat.— Democratic and Regal Power of the Constitution. —Influence of Names in Politics.— The Government of the United States a Democracy. — Who are the True Democrats. — The Efifect of the Alien and Sedition Laws in rousing the Democracy. — Mr. Clay's Claims to Democracy. His Denial of Democracy to his Opi)onents.— Jefferson not the Father of Democracy. — Democracy the Genius of the American People. — Reign of Democracy from Jefferson to J Q. Adams, inclusive. — Regal Power rose with General Jackson.— Mr. Clay's Great Struggle against Regal Power, and for the Defence of Democracy 507

Introduction by Thomas B. Reed

COPYRIGHT, 1896 BY

THOMAS E. O'SHEA

Introduction

Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was, for more than forty years, the most picturesque and remarkable figure in American politics. That he was refused the highest office in the gift of the people was not perhaps to their credit, but it was very much to their credit that he held such a sway in their councils for so many years.

The review of his life which is presented in the biographical volumes of the work to which these few words are an introduction, was written by one of those devoted friends which it was the not unusual good fortune of Mr. Clay to attach to himself by bonds which increased in strength as years went by, and which were not loosened even by death itself. That a vigorous, strenuous and stormy life should have had a defender so undoubting, and an admirer so sympathetic is unfortunate neither for truth nor for history.

Of the remaining volumes, those which contain his speeches show Mr. Clay as he appeared to the whole world, discussing with frankness, vigor and power every great question which agitated the American Republic from those early days when we were enlarging our boundaries to the southward, and making complete our connections with the Atlantic and the GuLf, to those later days when our Pacific empire, destined sometime to be our greatest, was but just

'^"h owing itself faintly against the setting sun; an empire then separated from us by three months of distance, by unpeopled deserts, and hostile and warlike tribes.

These speeches cover a vast range of subjects, all of vital importance to the development of the Republic, and exhibit statesmanship of a rare order, far seeing, full of regard for remote consequences, and yet equally full of a tactful appreciation of the temporary difficulties which barred the way and which had to be removed, because otherwise neither the present nor the future could have enjoyed the advantages of the action proposed.

The speeches of a statesman who is under the inexorable necessity of bringing things to pass, suffer much with the lapse of time. The next generation even, reads them with but little knowledge of the obstacles to be overcome, the temporary prejudices to be removed, and the existing rivalries which introduce upon the scene a purely personal element, the memory of which has almost utterly passed away. It is here that reformers and men of letters have so manifest an advantage. These speakers and writers have so few limitations that they can utter the truths of all time, regardless of the prejudice of the hour, and can present arguments in their full and undiminished strength, leaving the future to understand what the present cannot comprehend. It was said that eloquence was cheap at anti-slavery meetings, and well it might be, for any man, at any time, can to the extent of his ability easily have unlimited power for the present, who is regardless of his yesterday and careless of his to-morrow. It is far otherwise with a speaker who is dealing with men who not only have their own prejudices, but those also of the people whom they represent, and of the party with which they are connected. He must avoid many arguments which are sound and which would be appreciated in history, and must avoid them because for the time they do not convince. To answer an opponent's argument is one thing ; to convince him, quite another. Milton's Defence of the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, that glorious arsenal of arguments for liberty, which move from premise to conclusion like the march of an army with banners, had no effect on the people to whom it was addressed and preceded by a hundred years the actual freedom of the press. Whatever Clay and men in like position say, must suffer from this element of temporary exigency, the significance and influence of which is lost in the capacious maw of all-devouring time. We cannot by the most careful study find out all the circumstances which made the speaker understate an argument which now seems to have been so guarded as to lose much of its possible force; nor can we know what obstacle caused another argument to stop short of its legitimate and triumphant conclusion. While the student may go very far towards understanding these circumstances and obstacles, yet even to him it is the substitution of imagination for feeling, and his sensations have none of the vividness which comes from truths and arguments which are not for the moment but for all time. The ordinary reader puzzles himself with few of these things, and soon finds his interest relax as he pores over arguments and phrases devoted to facts which are

Lalf forgotten, and to situations which have grown dim 7 because the history of the country has long passed by them and passed by even their consequences. The speeches of Edmund Burke himself, though in their utterance so much of the present was sacrificed for the future, are much more talked of than read, even by men of culture and lovers of literary beauty.

Mr. Clay's speeches suffer from another cause, one which will seem strange until reflection convinces. They suffer from his fame as an orator. Perhaps no man in his day and generation and very few men in any day and generation ever so moved large masses of men. His power, however, was not confined to crowds and tumultuous assemblies. He was even more potent in the House of Representatives, in Courts of Justice, and in the Senate itself, though there surrounded by men second in fame only to himself. The secret of his powder was in his wonderful personality, his courage which feared no peril and shrank from no emergency. He seemed to be so entirely equal to all emergencies and so sure of himself, that he made all others sure of his final success. In person he was tall and majestic. His bearing was high and his courtesy was lofty. Respecting himself, he made every other man respect him. His voice had a melody and strength which have never been surpassed. When he spoke he was so absorbed in his subject, so determined that his hearers should go with him, that in his younger days, at least, the whole man spoke vibrant with the emotion which filled his entire being. When you add to this a masterful mind, frankness and a strong character, great reasoning power and an invincible determination, you can form some idea of his power over audiences in the days when the orator was the great teacher of the multitude and swayed the destinies of a country.

Almost all these personal qualities — except perhaps in one passage which will be specifically referred to — have disappeared from the printed words, and men have sought in vain for the causes of the remarkable results which Mr. Clay produced when the subject, the audience and the occasion called forth his mighty powers. Hence it is a common subject of observation that Mr. Clay's speeches are not equal to his great fame as an orator. This is true. But it was true also in a lesser degree of Demosthenes ; Aeschines, his great rival, meant something of the sort when in banishment he said to his pupils who admired the Oration on the Crown: "You should have heard the lion himself." Unfortunately, this notion that the speeches are not equal to the orator's fame, has been carried so far that men commonly think that they are unworthy of his fame. But this is not so. The speeches which are reprinted in the two volumes in this set, are replete, not only with wisdom and sound sense, high statesmanship and great power, but with passages which for beauty of diction cannot be surpassed.

It would far exceed the limits of this introduction to specify the excellences here broadly asserted, because the speeches are so numerous and upon such a great variety of subjects, and cover so large a period of time, that the smallest catalogue of passages to be specially alluded to would be unjustifiable. Moreover, the biography has such ample quotations, which illustrate what has been said, that the catalogue, if attempted, would be but a reduplication. Only one reference can be permitted, and that is justified by the fact that Mr. (/lay himself regarded the passage, to use his own words, as the one " which produced the most electrifying effect of anything I ever uttered." The passage may be found in the second volume of the Biography, page 372, and in the second volume of the Speeches, page 294. The whole speech, which was short and in reply to Mr. Rives, of Virginia, was evidently unpremeditated and is full of very great beauty and power.

Mr. Clay's first speech was very appropriately in defence of Domestic Manufactures. His next was " On the Line of the Perdido," a speech able, strong and closely reasoned, a remarkable effort for a young man of thirty-three and still well worth reading in connection with the speech on the Spanish Treaty, Vol. 5, p. 206, as a reminder of the early history of the Republic and of some strange mistakes we made while we were obtaining our southern bounderies, trading as we did, Texas and many real millions and more contingent millions for Florida alone, and running no little risk of not getting the whole of that. Besides the first speech oil Domestic Manufactures there are no less than nine others scattered through the two volumes, all of which deserve to be read by the student of Political Economy and by the statesmen of to-day. That of April 26, 1820, found in the fifth volume, p. 218, is a full and careful resume of the subject, but it is surpassed by the speech of March 30, 1824, Vol. 5, p. 255, which contains in a remarkable way the germs at least of all the arguments which are presented in behalf of protection to-day. It is somewhat startling to read in a speech delivered

jaeventy-one years ago an exact description of the condition of this country in the year of our Lord 1896. Hardly a word needs to be changed to make the picture drawn in 1824 pass for the picture of 1896. It shows in a very vivid way how like causes produce like effects. In 1824 this countiy had the blessings of modified Free Trade as it has to-day. In 1824 Mr. Clay was urging Protection as a remedy for the distress and sorrow which rested upon the country. Fortunately, his eloquent activity was crowned with success ; so that he was enabled to furnish in his speech of Feb. 2, 1832, eight years afterwards, a companion picture to that of 1824. The reader will find it in Vol. 5, p. 440, and the reader will also find that he has in the description of the state of the country in 1832 under Protection,a life-like view of the country in 1892, also under Protection. It is not perhaps worth while to point out all the particulars wherein history repeats itself, but it is well to notice that the arguments which Mr. Clay answers arising out of the very prosperity and well filled Treasury echoed down through the years from 1888 to 1892. It seems as if men could never be persuaded in any age of the world to let well enough alone, and were always sinning against light. A careful perusal of the speeches referred to may lead to much practical wisdom.

In the compromise tariff measures of 1833, which were to some extent a yielding to that misbehavior of a minority which was so eloquently rebuked in the speech of 1832, Mr. Clay was at first accused of abandoning the cause of Protection, but in reality he was at that time its savior, as well as at all times its steadfast frienrl. At that time he had two foes with whom to contend : General Jackson and Calhoun. It was hard to choose. If Jackson had hung Calhoun and inaugurated civil war the liberties of the country might have been in gi'eat danger. They would certainly have been much at Jackson's mercy. If General Jackson had instigated openly, as he probably did secretly, a worse measure than the compromise, then Protection would have been lost. In the volumes of biography and the speeches can be seen a full description of one of the most interesting and dangerous crises in American History.

The history of internal improvements is nowhere better told than in the speeches here recorded. In nothing is the statesmanship of Mr. Clay more clearly shown than in the view he took of the paramount necessity of a system of internal improvements. Even in his early days this country was so vast and so inaccessible that her progress depended upon an increase of means of communication, and while other men were struggling with their own inertia and mistaking it for the Constitution, Clay saw not only the utility but the absolute necessity of straining every power to bind the Union together. He foresaw that in order to forward civilization and to make the country habitable, all methods of communication must be pushed to the full extent of our power. Ha})pily for this country the railroad came in and helped us to solve the problem more speedily than Clay ever dreamed, and realized his hopes by a means he had not foreseen. In light of the present, with the wonderful means of inter-communicaion to-day before our eyes, it seems passing strange that Mr. Clay should have encountered such opposition to his scheme of internal improvements. But conservatism was never a stronger force in the world than at the time the experiment of nationality was made by the United States. Local self government and local power then seemed as much of a necessity as if the separate States were separate nations. Hence every suggestion of the extension by the National Grovemment of its usefulness was scrutinized as if it were the proposition of a hostile power. The speech of March 13, 1818, Vol. 5, p. 116, is not only a history of the obstacles thrown in the way of internal improvements by famous men, but is a very striking example of the skill with which Mr. Clay met and overcame great difficulties. Mr. Jefferson had expressed himself against the power to prosecute internal improvements. Mr. Madison by exercising the veto power had placed himself on the same side, and President Monroe had taken with swiftness the opportunity of his message to the fifteenth Congress at its first session, to announce his adoption of Mi-. Madison's declared opinion. The fact that all three of these great men acknowledged the need of such a power and advised a constitutional amendment,gave additional force to their combined opinion against the present existence of the power in the National Govern ment. But the speech of Mr. Clay was so cogent, his ai-guments so strong, and above all so skillfully adjusted to the thoughts of members, that he prevailed by the decisive vote of ninety to seventy-five against all opposition and against the administration which was then in the full strength of its first year.

The question is so thoroughly and finally settled in these days that the great struggle which has to be made is over the distribution of the sum to be appropriated, and the great danger which has to be looked after, is the liability of exceeding the revenues of the country. Notwithstanding this settlement these speeches on internal improvements are necessary studies for those who are students of history and especially for those interested in the art of persuasive speaking.

Perhaps the most decisive service which Mr. Clay rendered his country was his successful advocacy of the war of 1812. It was of course a grave and serious undertaking for us to attack the great country which was then holding Napoleon at bay. But the fact that slie was then thus occupied was our opportunity. We had been treated by Great Britain with an injustice which makes the dullest reader indignant even to this day. But the injustice which we suffered was nothing compared to the insult and indignity which were put upon us. We had reached a point where not only our rights but our self respect demanded decided action.

The speeches in Volume 5, commencing at page 35 and ending with page 73, and the review of the State of the Nation, commencing on page 83 with the introductory notes, explain not only Mr. Clay's share in the determination to make war, but his participation in the settlement of the questions on which peace depended.

His skill as an orator and statesman was amply supplemented by his skill in diplomacy. By the war itself, our warlike fame, except at sea and at the battle of New Orleans, was not much heightened, but the purposes of the war were all accomplished. After that war we took our real place among nations.

Mr. Clay was the most conspicuous figure in this whole transaction, and deserves to be remembered so long as that event remains prominent in the history of the country.

Mr. Clay made five speeches on the subjects involved in the revolt of the South American Colonies ao;ainst Spain. The emancipation of South America was very dear to his heart, and he advocated it with great vigor and great persistence.

He began his labors in 1817 by a speech on the Bill for enforcing neutrality, in which his sympathies played a larger part than his judgment. In 1820 he had the satisfaction of passing in the House of Representatives a resolution declaring it expedient to provide salaries for ministers to any of the South American governments maintaining their independence of Spain. This resolution, reported to the President in an unusual way by the committee headed by Mr. Clay himself, gave the cause a signal victory. Two years afterwards South American Independence was recognized, so far as the action of the House of Representatives was concerned, with only one dissenting voice.

The same feeling which impelled Mr. Clay to champion the cause of the South American Republics led him to support Mr, Webster's resolution looking to the appointment of an Agent or Commissioner to Greece during the pendency of the Greek Revolution. This he did in the speech printed in Vol. 5, page 246, extracts from which have ever since adorned our school boolcH and been subjects of declamation in every school liouse in the country. The combined efforts of We})8ter and Clay were not able to compel the support of the House, but were undoubtedly of important service in a moral way to the cause of Greek Independence.

On page 181 of the fifth volume begins the speech which was the most fruitful of consequences, both to Mr. Clay and to the country, of any in the two volumes, the speech on the Seminole War. In this speech, certain lawless acts of General Jackson were fully depicted, and the speech itself was the beginning of woes unnumbered. In its train of consequences came the life-long war between the two great men. In point of reason and sound sense Mr. Clay had greatly the advantage, and he entered upon his task from a high sense of duty. But he miscalculated the force of the sentiment which refuses to reason where war is concerned, and only asks which side our country is on, extending to all agents who wear uniform the protection which belongs to the country. Mr. Clay was not the only statesmen who has miscalculated the power of this sentiment. Palmerston's war with China, which had nothing in its origin whereby it could be defended, thrust out of Parliament Cobden and Bright in the zenith of their fame. In this case of the Seminole war tJie Administration came to the help of GeneralJackson, and the resolutions were defeated by large majorities. This controversy involved Mr. Calhoun, who, as a member of Monroe's Cabinet, had strongly disapproved of General Jackson's course. In due time, by the kind agency of Mr. Van Buren, General Jackson was informed of Mr. Calhoun's action in the Cabinet. This was one cause of the readiness of the General afterwards to contemplate the hanging of Mr. Calhoun, when nullification became a probable issue. In the two volumes devoted to speeches there are at least a dozen devoted to General Jackson, only one of which led to a decided victory for Mr. Clay. The victorious speech was the one which begins on page 633 of the fifth volume and concerns our relations with France.

The losing fight which Mr. Clay fought against General Jackson and the system of government which he and his successor had established, was not a losing fight on account of any lack of skill and ability on the part of Mr. Clay. All the elements were against him. He was in advance of the times in which he lived. The times were more suited to the rough and unscrupulous methods of Jackson, whose doctrine of spoils, the evil of which was not then appreciated, was much more agreeable to the people of the United States than a civil system dependent upon merit which had no political origin. After General Jackson had passed off the stage, Mr. Clay and his party, after a victory up to that time entirely unparalleled, fell into the hands of John Tyler and into the bottomless pit of treachery. Hence one may safely say that the greater part of Mr. Clay's life was spent in defeat and with the vanquished. But his courage never failed. He kept on with his work, listening to no discouragements, and up to the very last moment of his life was doing every day the duty of the hour.

This quarrel with Jackson, of which the speech on the Seminole war was the beginning, led to what Mr.

Colton calls the "Great Conspiracy," which darkened the life of Henry Clay for many years, — the charge of " Bargain and Corruption."

In 1^24, the Electoral Colleges had cast 99 votes for General Jackson, 84 for Mr. Adams, 41 for Mr. Crawford and 37 for Mr. Clay. Under the Constitution the election was devolved upon the House of Representatives, of which Mr. Clay was a member. Mr. Clay himself could not be a candidate since only the three highest. General Jackson, Mr. Adams and Mr. Crawford could be voted for. Between the General and Mr. Clay the relations had been strained ever since the speech on the Seminole war. Mr. Clay thought General Jackson a dangerous man, and had taken occasion even before he left Kentucky to express his determination to vote for Mr. Adams, should the rumor prove true that Mr. Crawford was, by illness, incapable of performing the duties of the great office for which he was a candidate. Mr. Clay ascertained by a personal visit that this rumor was founded in fact. It was soon discovered that the result of the election in the House would turn upon the votes of Mr. Clay and his friends. He and they were therefore the subjects of very much interested courtesy and expressed esteem. To use Mr. Clay's own words he was " enjoying while alive, the posthumous honors which are usually awarded to the venerated dead." Of course Mr. Clay's intentions and those of his friends in a short time became known, to the disappointment of the Jackson men, whose disappointment was perhaps greater because they really never had any grounds for hope. Then appeared one of those communications which are of so little consequence in our day, charging anonymously in the columns of a newspaper, " bargain and corruption." Mr. Clay immediately went into print with a card which bristled with injudicious wrath and the charge acquired a dignity which nobody else could have given it. A Mr. Kremer, a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, in response to the card acknowledged himself to be the author of the charge a,nd promised to prove it. When the committee was raised to hear the proof he retired behind his privilege. Anyone who desires to see how a base charge, without either foundation or sense, can be kept alive and flourishing for many years will find most interesting the description of this charge of bargain and corruption to be found in the first volume of this work, wherein are described its origin, revival and survival, a most surprising example of the vigor of a lie well stuck to. Starting with absolutely nothing in the way of proof and accumulating none in its course, it survived the most direct and decided negative ever proven in history. Mr. Clay's own speech in relation to this charge of bargain and corruption will be found in the fifth volume, page 342. At page 300 begins an address to his constituents on the same subject, dated March 26, 1825. Both are well worth reading, if only to see how a base charge against himself can be handled by a great man with dignity and self-respect.