A Biography of Henry Clay, the Senator from Kentucky / Containing Also, a Complete Report of All His Speeches; Selections From His Private Correspondence; Eulogies in the Senate and House; and a Poem, by George D. Prentice, Esq.

by Unknown

At the time when he was inducted into his office, the affairs of the republic were in an exceedingly critical condition. Those who had been sustaining themselves with the cherished expectations that England would repeal her orders in council, since the revocation of the edicts of France had removed the causes inducing their passage, now utterly abandoned them, on beholding her, instead of relaxing, enforcing them more rigorously than ever. To every unbiassed mind, the time seemed to have arrived when it was necessary to rise and put a stop to the long series of unprovoked depredations and outrages, committed against our commerce, by both that and the French nation. Such was the juncture of affairs as to make it obvious that if the American nation would preserve the semblance of freedom even, and command national respect, she must resort to more efficient measures than she had hitherto employed; that she must retrieve her tarnished honor, and vindicate boldly her rights. France manifested some disposition to be influenced by the remonstrances of the United States against her spoliations, by rescinding the opprobious Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon, which she had so construed as to make them sanction the seizure and confiscation of our property. Not so, however, with Great Britain; she refused to recognize their repeal, and even pretended to deny that they had been revoked. She still persisted in obstructing the commerce of America, declaring all the ports of France in a state of blockade, seizing our merchantmen bound to them, and confiscating their cargoes, in direct violation of the law of nations, permitting any neutral power to trade to any foreign port, when the blockade is not maintained by the actual presence of an adequate force. But England, by proclamation, blockaded every French port, from the Elbe to Brest, interdicting all vessels from entering them which did not carry on their trade through her, and seized such as made the attempt, while at the same time she neglected to keep a naval force on the coast of France sufficient to legalize the blockade. Her cruisers pursued our trading vessels to the very mouths of our own rivers and harbors, and seized, condemned, and confiscated them for violating this pseudo blockade. It seemed, by the number and enormity of the illegalities practiced towards us by Great Britain, as though she had commenced an organized, systematic crusade against our commerce, which aimed at nothing less than its utter extinction. But her barbarous system of impressment capped the climax of her cruelties. Under the assumed right of searching our ships, thousands of our seamen had been forced into her service on suspicion that they were British subjects. This execrable custom had carried seven thousand American freemen into captivity,as appeared from official reports made during that session, and the number was constantly augmenting; scarcely a breeze came across the Atlantic without wafting to our shores intelligence of some fresh enormity. To submit quietly to such unheard of oppression, would be an anomaly in the history of civilized nations. To expect redress by mild measures was out of the question. These had long been tried and found ineffectual. Madison, Pinckney, and Monroe, in their correspondence with the British government, had remonstrated again and again, but to no other purpose than to embolden the aggressor in his nefarious proceedings. There seemed, therefore, no alternative left the United States but to put themselves strongly on the defensive, and by force of arms, put a stop to these accumulating injuries. Every thing lovely in liberty, every thing sacred and hallowed in the memory of those by whom it was won, protested against further forbearance, and forbade further delay in unsheathing the sword of retributive justice. In short, the conviction had become deep and settled that nothing short of war could preserve an inch of canvass on an American vessel, on the face of the ocean.

Thus circumstanced, the United States seemed to be shut up to forcible resistance. The eyes of the whole country were turned towards congress, looking for measures of relief. It had been convened earlier than usual, that the subject of a declaration of war might come speedily before them. It is needless to remark that Mr. Clay’s views were favorable to war. An individual like him, jealous of his country’s honor almost to a fault, who could never contemplate oppression but with feelings of the deepest detestation, nor without experiencing the instantaneous desire to punish it; would grasp the weapons of defence instinctively, and if necessary, pour out his blood like water, rather than bow submissively beneath the galling yoke. With him, then, there was no equivocation nor hesitation, in advocating prompt warlike action, although he was compelled to do it in the face of formidable opposition. There was a strong party in the United States at that time, friendly to Great Britain, and disposed, rather than array themselves against her in a sanguinary conflict, to submit quietly to her rapacious attacks upon our liberties and lives. This party was well represented in congress. Many members of talent and influence were found in its ranks, in both houses, and they did not hesitate to employ them detrimentally to the interests of their country. But happily these found in him a giant champion—one who was well able to guard them, and willing to spend his last energy in their support. Lowndes, Calhoun, and other powerful coadjutors also stood with him, who labored hard to inspire the same ardent flame of patriotism in the breasts of others, that burned so intensely in their own.

In the message of the president, the causes of complaint againstGreat Britain were stated, and also a concise summary of the abuses we had received, and were then receiving at her hands. It recommended the adoption of efficient and immediate measures of redress, by providing the means of prosecuting vigorously a war of defence and offence. This document was referred to a committee, which was selected by him. He was extremely solicitous that the subject of our foreign relations should receive that consideration which their exceedingly interesting character demanded; and to secure this, he was careful to choose those whose views, in reference to them, coincided with his own. Peter B. Porter, of New York, was the chairman of the committee. He presented their report to the house on the 29th of November. It stated succinctly and in a patriotic tone, the injuries we had received at the hands of both England and France, denominating them as ‘so daring in character, and so disgraceful in execution, that it would be impossible for the people of the United States to remain indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we must resist by those means which God has placed within our reach. Your committee would not cast a slander over the American name, by the expression of a doubt which branch of this alternative will be embraced. The occasion is now presented when the national character, misrepresented and traduced for a time, by foreign and domestic enemies, should be vindicated.

‘If we have not rushed to the field of battle like the nations who are led by the mad ambition of a single chief, or the avarice of a corrupted court, it has not proceeded from a fear of war, but from our love of justice and humanity. That proud spirit of liberty and independence, which sustained our fathers in the successful assertion of their rights against foreign aggression, is not yet sunk. The patriotic fire of the revolution still burns in the American breast, with a holy and inextinguishable flame, and will conduct this nation to those high destinies which are not less the reward of dignified moderation than of exalted virtue.

‘But we have borne with injury until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. The sovereignty and independence of these states, purchased and sanctified by the blood of our fathers, from whom we received them, not for ourselves only, but as the inheritance of our posterity, are deliberately and systematically violated. And the period has arrived, when, in the opinion of your committee, it is the sacred duty of congress to call forth the patriotism and resources of the country. By the aid of these, and with the blessing of God, we confidently trust we shall be enabled to procure that redress which has been sought for by justice, by remonstrance and forbearance, in vain.’

They introduced into the report suitable resolutions for accomplishing the object which it proposed, which received the deliberate and careful consideration of the house.

Mr. Clay, being in the chair, had little opportunity to engage in the stirring debate that followed, yet he seemed to infuse a portion of his own glowing spirit into the friends of the measure, which caused others to approach it in the most determined resolution of sustaining any feasible and just course calculated to sustain the dignity and honor of the nation. The doctrines of the report were soon known throughout the country, and were hailed by the great mass of the people with every demonstration of approbation, and the echoes of their loud rejoicings rang back through the halls of congress like the tones of the ‘storm stirred deep,’ with most thrilling effect on the hearts of their representatives. The whole nation was kindled into a blaze by that document; it was what the people had been expecting, and impatiently waiting for. This applied the last bundle of fagots to the flame of patriotism that burned in the hearts of millions remote from the neighborhood of the outrages complained of, the extent and enormity of which, vague rumor only had conveyed to them. But this instrument made them acquainted, not only with their number, but also with their turpitude and murderous design. It showed them, on the one hand, the haughty, menacing attitude of England, and on the other, our own crouching, succumbing posture at her feet.It placed in bold relief before them, the barbaric depredations of the former on the ocean, her inhuman treatment of our seamen, and the huge paw of her lion tearing and lacerating our commercial interests whenever it could be placed upon them. The exhibition was viewed with feelings of surprise and indignation, causing them to stand aghast, and with difficulty to credit the evidence of their senses—to believe the picture accurately drawn. But the period of their stupified amazement was brief, and then the loud yell of vengeance which succeeded, was such as freemen only can send up when the iron heel of oppression is on their necks, and their precious heritage in his ravenous jaws. Like the earthquake, it shook the whole land, and its burden, repeated from every hill-top and valley, was war, vindictive war. For this there was great unanimity among the populace, who could not rest, now that the knowledge of the long-inflicted wrongs was brought to their dwellings; but there was not a corresponding unanimity in congress. It was painful to Mr. Clay to witness, in some members, a manifestation of awe and reverence even towards Great Britain, and in others, feelings of favor. By the revelations that had been made, his soul was wrought up to the highest point of manly and bold resistance, and he could not conceive it possible, that free legislators, similarly circumstanced with himself, could be affected otherwise. In many he witnessed a disposition to believe that the country was not in a suitable condition to commence and carry successfully on a war with so formidable a power as England. Our small and badly equipped army, our depressed navy, exhaustedtreasury, heavy indebtedness, and general lack of the requisite means, were pleaded by those opposed to the rupture. But Mr. Clay, in the towering majesty and strength of an intellectual giant, took all the obstacles and objections which their combined force could bring forward, in his powerful grasp, and compressed them into a nut-shell, entirely divested of their intimidating power. Among those opposed to war was Mr. Randolph. ‘Mr. Randolph’s intellect was then in its vigor, and the effort which he made in opposition to the report of the committee was perhaps the greatest in his whole congressional life. The extensive resources of his mind, the stately march of his eloquent periods, the startling flashes of his indignation, and the sneering devil that lurked in his tone and look, rendered him an opponent at that day, whom it was by no means safe to encounter. Mr. Clay was the only man in the house, who could dash aside, with unerring certainty, the weapons of this Ishmael.’

On the sixth of December the house resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and took up the report. After a brief speech from Mr. Porter, elucidating and maintaining its positions and resolutions, it was adopted. It furnished ground of discussion in the house for several days, warmly and vigorously sustained by its friends, and violently opposed by its enemies. Among the latter, Mr. Randolph rendered himself the most conspicuous, both by his anti-republican and eccentric views, and the hostility evinced by him towards all who dissented from them, whom he visited with the most bitter personal invective. His fertile imagination conjured up a host of reasons, to deter us from embarking in the offensive war, which the report recommended. He threatened the advocates of it with the total loss of their political power, and magnified the might of England to an overwhelming extent; suggesting that it would be far more appropriate to approach her in a suppliant position, with downcast looks and folded arms, than to rush with shield and buckler and rashly dare her to the conflict. He seemed to sympathize with Great Britain, deprecating that censure heaped upon her as unjust, and advocated the policy of farther negotiations with her. His arguments, and those of his friends, were, however, unavailing, and when the debate ceased, the resolutions were separately adopted by large majorities.

On the thirty-first of December, the house again resolved itself into a committee of the whole on a bill from the senate providing for the raising of twenty-five thousand troops. Mr. Breckenridge being in the chair, an opportunity was furnished Mr. Clay to express his views in relation to it, which he embraced. Among those in favor of war in the house, much diversity of opinion prevailed in regard to the number of men it was desirable to raise. Many were in favor of fifteen thousand only—a force in hisestimation by far too small to meet the exigences which had then arisen, and would be likely to arise. The secretary of war, in his report, had stated that at least twelve thousand troops would be wanted for the sole purpose of garrisoning the fortresses on the sea-board. During the progress of the proposed war, it might be deemed important to attack and subjugate Quebec in Canada, in which case it would be necessary, he contended, to post in the various military stations of strength on the route, a considerable number of men, to retain their possession. Allowances he thought should be made for the various contingences probable to occur, always incident to the operations of an army, and calculated to diminish their number. Even if the projected invasion of the British Provinces should be abandoned, Mr. Clay contended that the single circumstance of the immense extent of frontier to be guarded, rendered it obvious that twenty-five thousand men would constitute a force by no means too large. Inasmuch as it was the painful but imperative duty of America to strike the blow, he was in favor of so concentrating her energies, that when it fell, there would remain no necessity for its repetition. Subsequent events have proved his policy both wise and sagacious.

Mr. Randolph mingled his erratic and visionary views in the discussion, and exerted himself to the utmost, to foment prejudice against a regular army; the effect of which would be worse than that of the locusts of Egypt, famishing, impoverishing, and deluging the country with blood, and erect a throne, to some idol conqueror. Said Mr. Clay in reply, ‘I am not the advocate of standing armies: but the standing armies which excite most my fears, are those which are kept up in time of peace. I confess I do not perceive any real source of danger in a military force of twenty-five thousand men in the United States, provided only for a state of war, even supposing it to be corrupted, and its arms turned by the ambition of its leaders against the freedom of the country. I see abundant security against any such treasonable attempt. The diffusion of information among the great body of the people, constitutes a powerful safeguard. The American character has been much abused by Europeans, whose tourists, whether on horse or foot, in verse and prose have united in depreciating it. It is true we do not exhibit as many signal instances of scientific acquirement in this country, as are furnished in the old world, but it is undeniable that the great mass of the people possess more intelligence than any other people on the globe. Such a people, consisting of upwards of seven millions, affording a physical power of about a million of men capable of bearing arms, and ardently devoted to liberty, cannot be subdued by an army of twenty-five thousand men. The wide extent of country over which we are spread, is another security. In other countries, France and England for example, the fall of Paris or London isthe fall of the nation. Here are no such dangerous aggregations of people. New York, and Philadelphia, and Boston, and every city on the Atlantic, may be subdued by a usurper, and he will have made but a small advance in the accomplishment of his purpose. Even let the whole country east of the Alleghany, submit to the ambition of some daring chief, and the liberty of the Union will be still unconquered. It will find successful support from the west. A great portion of the militia, nearly the whole, I understand, of Massachusetts, have arms in their hands, and I trust in God that this great object will be persevered in, till every man in the nation can proudly shoulder the musket, which is to defend his country and himself.A people having, besides the benefit of one general government, other local governments in full operation, capable of exerting and commanding great portions of the physical power, all of which must be prostrated before our constitution is subverted—such a people have nothing to fear from a petty contemptible force of twenty-five thousand regulars.’