Famous American Statesmen Part 15

"And why?" she asked.

"Because if he had beaten us, we should have been in the condition of Europe, without disgrace. But if we had been so fortunate as to defeat him, we should have greatly added to the renown of our arms."

When Clay returned to America, he was welcomed in New York and Lexington with public dinners. That the war had produced good results was well stated in his Lexington address. "Abroad, our character, which, at the time of its declaration, was in the lowest state of degradation, is raised to the highest point of elevation. It is impossible for any American to visit Europe without being sensible of this agreeable change in the personal attentions which he receives, in the praises which are bestowed on our past exertions, and the predictions which are made as to our future prospects. At home, a government, which, at its formation, was apprehended by its best friends, and p.r.o.nounced by its enemies to be incapable of standing the shock, is found to answer all the purposes of its inst.i.tution."

Clay was now famous; commanding in presence, with a winsome rather than handsome face, exuberant in spirits, generous by nature, polite to the poorest, self-possessed, with a voice unsurpa.s.sed, if ever equalled, for its musical tone; a man who made friends everywhere and among all cla.s.ses, and never lost them; who was always a gentleman, because always kind at heart. Manner, which Emerson calls the "finest of the fine arts," gave Clay the "mastery of palace and fortune" wherever he went.

That voice and hand-grasp, that remembrance of a face and a name, won him countless admirers.

President Madison offered him the mission to Russia, which he declined, as also a place in the Cabinet, as Secretary of War, preferring to speak on all those matters which helped to build up America. On the question of the United States Bank he made a strong speech against its const.i.tutionality, which Andrew Jackson said later was his most convincing authority when he destroyed the bank. Clay's views changed in after years, and made him at bitter enmity with Andrew Jackson and John Tyler, both of whom vigorously opposed a bank, with its vast capital and consequent power in politics.

Clay's desire for the rapid development of America led him to become a "protectionist," and the leader of the so-called "American system," as opposed to Free Trade or the Foreign System. He believed that only as we encourage our own manufactures can we become a powerful nation, paying high wages, shutting out the products of the cheap labor of Europe, increasing our home market, and becoming independent of the foreign market. Clay's speeches were read the country over, and won him thousands of followers.

Like others in public life, he now and then gave offence to his const.i.tuents. He had voted for a bill to increase the pay of members of Congress from six dollars a day to a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. To the farmers of Kentucky this amount seemed far too great. He one day met an old hunter who had always voted for him, but was now determined to vote against a man so extravagant in his ideas!

"My friend," said Clay, "have you a good rifle?"

"Yes."

"Did it ever flash?"

"Yes; but only once."

"What did you do with the rifle when it flashed?--throw it away?"

"No; I picked the flint, tried again, and brought down the game."

"Have I ever flashed, except upon the compensation bill?"

"No."

"Well, will you throw me away?"

"No, Mr. Clay; I will pick the flint and try you again."

Mr. Clay was returned to Congress, and voted for the repeal of the fifteen hundred dollar salary.

The subject which was to surpa.s.s all other subjects in interest, and well-nigh destroy the Union, was coming into prominence--slavery. Henry Clay, from a boy, when George Wythe, the Virginia chancellor, freed his slaves, had looked upon human bondage as a curse. He used to say, "If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain from the character of our country, and removing all cause of reproach on account of it, by foreign nations; if I could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that revered State that gave me birth, or that not less beloved State which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror.

"When we consider the cruelty of the origin of negro slavery, its nature, the character of the free inst.i.tutions of the whites, and the irresistible progress of public opinion throughout America, as well as in Europe, it is impossible not to antic.i.p.ate frequent insurrections among the blacks in the United States; they are rational beings like ourselves, capable of feeling, of reflection, and of judging of what naturally belongs to them as a portion of the human race. By the very condition of the relation which subsists between us, we are enemies of each other. They know well the wrongs which their ancestors suffered at the hands of our ancestors, and the wrongs which they believe they continue to endure, although they may be unable to avenge them. They are kept in subjection only by the superior intelligence and superior power of the predominant race."

At the North, anti-slavery sentiments had intensified; at the South, where slavery was at first regarded as an evil, the consequent ease and wealth from slave labor had changed public opinion, and had made the people jealous of northern discussion. Through the invention of the cotton-gin, by Eli Whitney, the value of cotton exports had quadrupled in twenty years, and the value of slaves had trebled. Comparatively good feeling was maintained by the two sections of the country as long as for every slave State admitted to the Union a free State was also admitted.

In 1818, the people of Missouri desired to be admitted to the Union. Mr.

Tallmadge of New York proposed that the further introduction of slavery should be prohibited, and that all children born within the said State should be free at the age of twenty-five years. The discussion grew strong and bitter. Two years later the inhabitants of the State proceeded to adopt a const.i.tution which forbade free negroes from coming into the territory or settling in it. The discussion grew more bitter still. Threats of disunion and civil war were heard. Jefferson wrote from his Monticello home, "The Missouri question is the most portentous one that ever threatened the Union. In the gloomiest moments of the Revolutionary War I never had any apprehension equal to that I feel from this source."

A senator from Illinois, Mr. Thomas, proposed that no restriction as to slavery be imposed upon Missouri, but that in all the rest of the territory ceded by France to the United States, north of 36 30', this being the southern boundary of Missouri, there should be no slavery.

Then Mr. Clay, with his intense love for the Union, bent all his energies to effect this compromise suggested by Thomas. He spoke earnestly in its behalf, and went from member to member, persuading and beseeching with all his genius and winsomeness. When Clay had effected the pa.s.sage of the bill, the "great pacificator" became more beloved than ever. He had saved the Union, and now was talked of as the successor to President Monroe.

Clay was now forty-seven, the polished orator, the consummate leader, one of the great trio whom all visitors to Was.h.i.+ngton wished to look upon: Clay, Webster, and Calhoun. Kentucky was earnest in her support of Clay as President.

When the time came for voting, six candidates were before the people: John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Clinton of New York, and Crawford of Georgia. Hon. Thomas H. Benton of Missouri was an ardent supporter of Clay, and travelled over several States speaking in his behalf.

Clay was anxious for the position, but would do nothing unworthy to obtain it. He wrote to a friend, "On one resolution, my friends may rest a.s.sured, I will firmly rely, and that is, to partic.i.p.ate in no intrigue, to enter into no arrangements, to make no promises or pledges; but that, whether I am elected or not, I will have nothing to reproach myself with. If elected, I will go into the office with a pure conscience, to promote with my utmost exertions the common good of our country, and free to select the most able and faithful public servants.

If not elected, acquiescing most cheerfully in the better selection which will thus have been made, I will at least have the satisfaction of preserving my honor unsullied and my heart uncorrupted."

After the vote had been taken, as no candidate received a clear majority, the election necessarily went to the House of Representatives.

Though Jackson received the most electoral votes, Clay, not friendly to him, used his influence for Adams and helped obtain his election. Clay was, of course, bitterly censured by the followers of Jackson, and when Adams made him Secretary of State the cry of "bargain and sale" was heard throughout the country. Though both Adams and Clay denied any promise between them, the Jackson men believed, or professed to believe it, and helped in later years to spoil his presidential success. Adams said, "As to my motives for tendering him the Department of State when I did, let the man who questions them come forward. Let him look around among the statesmen and legislators of the nation and of that day. Let him then select and name the man whom, by his preeminent 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."

Returning to Kentucky before taking the position of Secretary of State, his journey thither was one constant ovation. Public dinners were given him in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In the midst of this prosperity, sorrow laid her hand heavily upon the great man's heart. His children were his idols. They obeyed him because they loved him and were proud of him. Lucretia, named for her mother, a delicate and much beloved daughter, died at fourteen. Eliza, a most attractive girl, with her father's magnetic manners, died on their journey to Was.h.i.+ngton. A few days after her death, another daughter, Susan Hart, then Mrs.

Durolde of New Orleans, died, at the age of twenty.

There was work to be done for the country, and Mr. Clay tried to put away his sorrow that he might do his duty. As Secretary of State he helped to negotiate treaties with Prussia, Denmark, Austria, Russia, and other nations. The opposition to Adams and Clay became intense. The Jackson party felt itself defrauded. John Randolph of Virginia was an outspoken enemy, closing a scathing speech with the words, "by the coalition of Blifil and Black George--by the combination, unheard of till then, of the Puritan with the blackleg."

Clay was indignant, and sent Randolph a challenge, which he accepted. On the night before the duel, Randolph told a friend that he had determined not to return Clay's fire. "Nothing," he said, "shall induce me to harm a hair of his head. I will not make his wife a widow and his children orphans. Their tears would be shed over his grave; but when the sod of Virginia rests on my bosom, there is not in this wide world one individual to pay this tribute upon mine."

The two men met on the banks of the Potomac, near sunset. Clay fired and missed his adversary, while Randolph discharged his pistol in the air.

As soon as Clay perceived this he came forward and exclaimed, "I trust in G.o.d, my dear sir, that you are unhurt; after what has occurred, I would not have harmed you for a thousand worlds." Years afterward, a short time before Randolph's death, as he was on his way to Philadelphia, he stopped in Was.h.i.+ngton, and was carried into the Senate chamber during its all-night session. Clay was speaking. "Hold me up,"

he said to his attendants; "_I have come to hear that voice._"

At the presidential election of 1828 Andrew Jackson was the successful candidate, and Clay retired to his Ashland farm, where he took especial delight in his fine horses, cattle, and sheep. But he was soon returned to the Senate by his devoted State.

The tariff question was now absorbing the public mind. The South, under Calhoun's leaders.h.i.+p, had been opposed to protection, which they believed aided northern manufacturers at the expense of southern agriculturists. When the tariff bill of 1832 was pa.s.sed, and South Carolina talked of nullification and secession, Clay said: "The great principle which lies at the foundation of all free government is that the majority must govern, from which there can be no appeal but the sword. That majority ought to govern wisely, equitably, moderately, and const.i.tutionally; but govern it must, subject only to that terrible appeal. If ever one or several States, being a minority, can, by menacing a dissolution of the Union, succeed in forcing an abandonment of great measures deemed essential to the interests and prosperity of the whole, the Union from that moment is practically gone. It may linger on in form and name, but its vital spirit has fled forever."

South Carolina pa.s.sed her nullification ordinance, and prepared to resist the collection of revenues at Charleston. Then Jackson, with his undaunted courage and indomitable will, ordered a body of troops to South Carolina, and threatened to hang Calhoun and his nullifiers as "high as Haman."

Then the "great pacificator" came forward to heal the wounds between North and South, and preserve the Union. He prepared his "Compromise Bill," which provided for a gradual reduction of duties till the year 1842, when twenty per cent. at a home valuation should become the rate on dutiable goods. He spent much time and thought on this bill, visiting the great manufacturers of the country, and urging them to accede for the sake of peace.

After this bill pa.s.sed he was more esteemed than ever. He visited by request the Northern and Eastern States, and spoke to great gatherings of people in nearly all the large cities. A platform having been erected on the heights of Bunker Hill, Edward Everett addressed him in the presence of an immense audience, and Clay responded with his usual eloquence. The young men of Boston presented him a pair of silver pitchers, weighing one hundred and fifty ounces. The young men of Troy, New York, gave him a superbly mounted rifle. Other cities made him expensive presents.

After the first four years of Jackson's "reign," as it was called by those who deprecated the unusual power held by the executive, Clay was again nominated for the presidency by the Whigs, and again defeated, Jackson receiving two hundred and nineteen electoral votes and Clay only forty-nine.

Again in 1840, after the four years' term of Van Buren, the protege of Jackson, all eyes turned toward Clay as the coming President. But already he had been twice the nominee and been twice defeated. The anti-slavery element had become a serious factor in party plans. The secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York wrote Clay: "I should consider the election of a slave-holder to the presidency a great calamity to the country." The slave-holders meantime denounced Clay as an abolitionist.

When the Whig national convention met, December 4, 1839, they chose, not Clay, but General William Henry Harrison, a good man and a successful soldier, but a very different man from the popular Clay. The statesman was sorely disappointed. "I am," he said, "the most unfortunate man in the history of parties: always run by my friends when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a nomination when I or any one would be sure of an election."

His friends throughout the country were grieved and indignant. But Clay supported with all his power the true-hearted old soldier, who, when elected, offered him the first place in the Cabinet, which was declined.

Harrison died a month after his inauguration, and John Tyler became President. Clay and Tyler differed constantly, till Clay determined to retire from the Senate. He said: "I want rest, and my private affairs want attention. Nevertheless, I would make any personal sacrifice if, by remaining here, I could do any good; but my belief is I can effect nothing, and perhaps my absence may remove an obstacle to something being done by others." When it became known that Clay would make a farewell address, the Senate chamber was crowded.

He spoke of his long career of public service, and the memorable scenes they had witnessed together. His feelings nearly overcame him as he said: "I emigrated from Virginia to the State of Kentucky now nearly forty-five years ago; I went as an orphan boy who had not yet attained the age of majority, who had never recognized a father's smile nor felt his warm caresses, poor, penniless, without the favor of the great, with an imperfect and neglected education, hardly sufficient for the ordinary business and common pursuits of life; but scarce had I set foot upon her generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness, caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patronized with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the highest honors of the State have been freely bestowed upon me; and when, in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction, I seemed to be a.s.sailed by all the rest of the world, she interposed her broad and impenetrable s.h.i.+eld, repelled the poisoned shafts that were aimed for my destruction, and vindicated my good name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. I return with indescribable pleasure to linger a while longer, and mingle with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that State; and, when the last scene shall forever close upon me, I hope that my earthly remains will be laid under her green sod with those of her gallant and patriotic sons."

When Clay reached Lexington he was welcomed like a prince. A great public feast was given in his honor. In his speech to the people he said: "I have been accused of ambition, often accused of ambition. If to have served my country during a long series of years with fervent zeal and unshaken fidelity, in seasons of peace and war, at home and abroad, in the legislative halls and in an executive department; if to have labored most sedulously to avert the embarra.s.sment and distress which now overspread this Union, and, when they came, to have exerted myself anxiously, at the extra session and at this, to devise healing remedies; if to have desired to introduce economy and reform in the general administration, curtail enormous executive power, and amply provide, at the same time, for the wants of the government and the wants of the people, by a tariff which would give it revenue and then protection; if to have earnestly sought to establish the bright but too rare example of a party in power faithful to its promises and pledges made when out of power,--if these services, exertions, and endeavors justify the accusation of ambition, I must plead guilty to the charge.

"I have wished the good opinion of the world; but I defy the most malignant of my enemies to show that I have attempted to gain it by any low or grovelling acts, by any mean or unworthy sacrifices, by the violation of any of the obligations of honor, or by a breach of any of the duties which I owed to my country."

In 1844, at the Whig convention at Baltimore, May 1, Clay was unanimously nominated for the presidency, with a great shout that shook the building. It seemed as though his hour of triumph had come at last.

James K. Polk was the Democratic nominee. Another party now appeared, the "Liberty Party," with James G. Birney of Kentucky as its candidate.

He was an able lawyer, and a man who had liberated his slaves through principle. The contest was one of the most acrimonious in our national history. Texas was clamoring for admission to the Union, with the Mexican War sure to result. The Whigs feared to commit themselves on the slavery question. When the votes were counted Birney had received over sixty-two thousand, enough to throw the election into the hands of the Democrats. The abolitionists had done what they were willing to do,--bury the Whig party, that from its grave might arise another party, which should fearlessly grapple with slavery, and they accomplished their desire, when, in 1860, the Republican party made Abraham Lincoln President.