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.

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Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, zealously coöperated with Mr. Clay, incessantly exerting himself to propagate his views, and, in consequenceof his commanding influence, his efforts were crowned with gratifying success. He was strongly attached to Mr. Calhoun, and many other southern members, and would often express his admiration of their distinguished talents and noble qualities, and a desire to see them retained in the service of their and his country. ‘Noble fellows, Clay! noble fellows!’ he would say. ‘We must save them, if possible; it will not do to let general Jackson hang them; the country needs them; she cannot spare them yet!’ Southern members generally took sides with South Carolina, so far as to consult her wishes in selecting such measures as would satisfy her. The principle of home valuation, which Mr. Clay and his friends insisted upon incorporating with his compromise bill, they opposed at first, but finally most of them agreed to it, among whom was Mr. Calhoun. When the bill was taken up by the senate, he, for the first time, signified his assent to that principle, and paid a handsome tribute to the patriotism and motives of Mr. Clay. He intimated, plainly, that Mr. Clay’s bill was calculated to heal the wound which the confederacy had received, and expressed the strongest anxiety that this would be accomplished without abandoning a tittle of the constitutional right of protection. In a debate, which was protracted several days, the enemies of the bill arrayed against it all their power. Mr. Webster, with the mighty weapons which his giant intellect was capable of forging, assaulted it with tremendous vehemence. Its defeat was considered at one stage of the discussion as certain. Said Mr. Forsyth, tauntingly, ‘the tariff is at its last gasp; no hellebore can cure it.’ ‘It contains nothing but protection, from beginning to end,’ said Mr. Smith, of Maryland, ‘and therefore I oppose it.’

During the debate, a personal difficulty occurred between Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, and Mr. Webster, which threatened to lead to something serious. Mr. Clay, by his generous interference, pacificated the parties, by bringing about a satisfactory explanation.

The compromise bill finally was adopted in the house, by a vote of one hundred and twenty to eighty-four, and in the senate, by a vote of twenty-nine to sixteen, and received the president’s signature, in March, 1833. And thus the country once more breathed freely; the good and benevolent, who had clad themselves in sackcloth, and, in a posture of the deepest humiliation and grief, sat supplicating a kind Providence to shield her, in this her hour of imminent peril, and guide her safely through it, arose and poured out to Him the libations of their gratitude. Neither did they forget the instrument which he had deigned to employ in accomplishing her deliverance. Both friends and foes acknowledged his agency in this. As in the settlement of the Missouri question, so in this, he was hailed as the liberator of a nation from the jaws of impending danger, and perhaps of ruin. The tide of popular praise and profound regard set towards him from all partsof it, like the streams of gravitation towards the centre of the earth. Men of all parties contributed to swell this. Those who rarely spoke of him, except in detracting terms, now joined heartily in the popular cry of approval. President Tyler was heard to say, several years subsequent to the passage of Mr. Clay’s bill, in view of his agency in carrying it through congress, ‘in my deliberate opinion, there was but one man who could have arrested the then course of things (the tendency of nullification to dissolve the union), and that man was Henry Clay. It rarely happens to the most gifted and talented and patriotic, to record their names upon the page of history, in characters indelible and enduring. But if to have rescued his country from civil war—if to have preserved the constitution and union from hazard and total wreck—constitute any ground for an immortal and undying name among men, then do I believe that he has won for himself that high renown. I speak what I do know, for I was an actor in the scenes of that perilous period. When he rose in the senate chamber, and held in his hand the olive branch of peace, I, who had not known what envy was before, envied him. I was proud of him as my fellow countryman, and still prouder that the slashes of Hanover, within the limit of my old district, gave him birth.’

The above is a fair sample of the expressions of praise and regard, for his eminent services rendered, in connection with introducing those wise and sanative provisions which poured the balm of peace into the lacerated hearts of an afflicted people. Probably they were never more united in any one measure, than in that of expressing their gratitude to Mr. Clay, for his successful interference. And well did he merit it. The task which he performed was no easy one. It cost an amount of mental labor which cannot be easily estimated. Many sleepless nights were passed in exhausting thought, in revolving in his mind the subject, in all its aspects and details, with an anxiety to devise some remedy that would meet the exigencies of the case, that drank up the very sources of his existence. It required the mightiest effort of his great and varied powers, to prevent its strangulation at its inception. While in the hands of the committee, its enemies endeavored to cause the impression to be received, that the bill, as designed by Mr. Clay, could not pass; that there was not the slightest chance of its success; and several members of the committee were determined that it should not be reported to the senate in any form, and were more than once on the point of abandoning their places to secure this. ‘Gentlemen,’ Mr. Clay would say, ‘this subject has been committed to us, and we must not dismiss it in this manner; it is our duty to report it in some shape, and it shall, at all events, be reported.’ It appeared subsequently, from the testimony of Mr. Hugh L. White, on whom the duty of selecting the committee devolved, that general Jackson had, in person, urged him to choosesuch members as were friendly to Mr. Verplanck’s bill, and consequently hostile to Mr. Clay’s. It is matter of great surprise, that, under such circumstances, it should have passed at all, except with the entire abandonment of protection. More than sleepless vigilance was requisite, to bring it safely out from beneath the uplifted arms of a powerful party, led on by the executive himself, and place it on the statute book of the nation. Columbus hardly encountered fiercer storms, or braved greater dangers, in discovering America, than Mr. Clay in originating, sustaining, and consummating, a measure that resulted in the preservation of a great portion of it from falling into the hands of the worst of all human enemies, civil war. Well did he deserve, then, the meed of praise which its inhabitants unanimously accorded to him. Most righteous was their decision, in relation to his motives—that they were unimpeachably pure. In these days of political degeneracy, it is refreshing to look back and suffer one’s vision to rest upon that spot on which he planted his feet, and fought his glorious, patriotic battle; their prints are still seen; they have gathered greenness with the lapse of years, presaging that the floods and storms of time will never obliterate or mar them.

We have before alluded to Mr. Clay’s indomitable adhesion to principle, that no party or selfish consideration could induce him for a moment to swerve from it. This led him to act for the good of his whole country, and never to act, while a member of her councils, unless an occasion when that was at stake arose. We have searched long, but in vain, for evidence to the contrary. We have examined, with great care, his public character, as spread out upon the records of the nation, and solemnly declare our belief, that none, either expressed or implied, exists. If, in relation to his public career, we were asked, ‘what is its most prominent characteristic?’ we should unhesitatingly reply, purity of motive. We believe, in reference to this, that he stands on a moral eminence, high enough to command a view of the globe. So prominent does this appear, the more it is examined, the conviction cannot be resisted, that, in all his public action, of which his country was the object, his desire to act right was stronger than that of life itself. Says one of his personal friends, ‘on one occasion he did me the honor to send for and consult with me, in reference to a step he was about to take. After stating what he proposed, I suggested, whether there would not be danger in it, whether such a course would not injure his own prospects, as well as those of the whig party in general.’ His reply was, ‘I did not send for you to ask what might be the effects of the proposed movement on my prospects, BUT WHETHER IT IS RIGHT; I would rather be right than be president.’ A noble sentiment! and would it were more common among politicians.

The compromise act was intended to expire in 1842, to whichtime it provided for a gradual reduction of duties, when twenty per centum should be the rate until otherwise regulated by law.

Soon after the adjournment of congress, accompanied by a portion of his family, Mr. Clay took a long-contemplated tour to the eastern cities. This gave the people an opportunity of beholding the great and successful champion of their rights, and in many instances of tendering to him their thanks. His whole route was like the movement of some mighty conqueror—almost one unbroken triumphal procession.He was taken into the arms of popular favor, as soon as he stepped from the threshold of his dwelling, and hardly suffered to alight, until they had returned him thither.[1] He was escorted into all the principal places through which he passed, with the highest possible respect. At New York, every demonstration of gratitude and rejoicing welcomed him. An immense throng of gentlemen on horseback, escorted him to his lodgings.The governor’s room in the city hall, was appropriated to his use, and was crowded by a constant succession of visitors. All parties seemed to vie with each other in devising and presenting the most fitting testimonials of regard. Through the eastern states, his reception was marked with every token of esteem; their inhabitants rose up from their occupations, almost like one person, to do him homage. For a season, their spindles, shuttles, and manufacturing establishments, ceased operation, in honor of the presence of their defender. Arrived at Boston, whose population had been anticipating and preparing for his arrival, the enthusiasm which had been swelling and increasing and accompanying his progress, was given back from Faneuil hall and Bunker hill, in echoes that reverberated to the remotest parts of the country. The young men of that city presented him a pair of superb silver pitchers, weighing one hundred and fifty ounces; committees waited on and addressed him; and invitations to public festivals on his account were numerous. On his return, after visiting Troy and Albany, his reception at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other places, was, if possible, more enthusiastic than it was when he passed through them on his way east. He was released from the ‘bondage’ of the people’s favor, in season for him to renew his efforts in vindicating their privileges and their liberties.

The policy advocated by Mr. Clay in disposing of the public lands, rendered him a fit subject for the continuance of that favor which the people had lavished so unsparingly upon him, and a target for his enemies to give fresh specimens of their skill in archery. The question came up in this manner. Mr. Bibb, of Kentucky,on the twenty-second of March, 1832, moved to reduce the price of public lands, and Mr. Robinson, of Illinois, the propriety of ceding them to the several states in which they were located. The administration party managed to have this question referred (though with manifest impropriety) to the committee on manufactures. This they did with the obvious intent of perplexing Mr. Clay, who was a member of that committee. They knew his prompt and decided manner; that he would not dismiss the question, without taking some definite action. They knew, also, that local prejudices and interests were so deeply involved in it, as to make its consideration peculiarly difficult, and to bring down upon the agent of its adjustment, the loud displeasure of that section, whose interests must, in a measure, from its very nature, be sacrificed. Their only motive was to impair his popularity with the east, if he suffered their interest to be transferred to the west, and with the latter, if he made provision for its maintenance. To a narrow-minded politician, this subject would have presented a dilemma, but to Mr. Clay none at all. He gave his enemies fresh and most overwhelming evidence, of the utter fruitlessness of appealing to what scarcely existed within him—to his cupidity. He would not deviate a hair from the path of rectitude, to accept the highest gift which the nation could confer. Its reference to the committee on manufactures he knew to be, and pronounced, highly irregular, as well as improper, yet it had been made, and for one he was resolved not to shrink from the duty of examining it. He therefore took up the subject, and according to his notion of equity and justice to all in any way interested in the disposal of the public domain, framed his noted ‘land bill,’ of which the following is a synopsis. It provided, that, after the thirty-first day of December, 1832, twelve and a half per centum of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands within Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, and Mississippi, should be paid to them independent of what they were entitled to according to the terms of their admission into the confederacy. This was to be appropriated for purposes of internal improvement and education, under the supervision of their several legislatures. The remainder of the proceeds was to be distributed among all the states in proportion to their representative population, for similar purposes, and under similar control, or in liquidation of any debt contracted in making internal improvement.

The act was to continue five years, except in case of war. Additional provisions were to be made for any new state that might be admitted during its continuance.

The minimum price of the lands was not to be increased, and not less than eighty thousand dollars per annum to be applied in completing the public surveys. Land offices were to be discontinued, where the net proceeds of the sales in them should not besufficient to defray the expense of their continuance, and that certain designated quantities of land should be granted to six of the new states, not to be sold at a less than the minimum price of lands sold by the United States.