xt7r4x54fs6w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7r4x54fs6w/data/mets.xml Clay, Henry, 1777-1852. 1843  books b92-87-27382592v1 English Greeley & McElrath, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Campaign literature. Whig Party (U.S.)Swain, James B. (James Barrett), 1820-1895. Life and speeches of Henry Clay (vol. 1) text Life and speeches of Henry Clay (vol. 1) 1843 2002 true xt7r4x54fs6w section xt7r4x54fs6w 










































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THE



LIFE AND SPEECHES




            OF




    HENRY CLAY,



        VOLUME I.










        NEW-YORK:

GREELEY  McELRATH, TRIBUNE BUILI)LNGS.
           1843.

 































       ENTERED according to an act of Congress, in the year 1842, by
                          JAMES B. SWAIN,
In the Clerk's Office of the U. S. Court for the Southern District of New-York.

 
This page in the original text is blank.



 































































                 HENRY CLAY

[From the original life mask by John Henri Isaac Browerel



 








                      CONTENTS



                             o7 VO.UME L













1'reface .................................................................... 5
Memoir of Henry Clay .................................................... 7

                              SPEECHES.
Introduction.................................... I
On the Line of the Perdido  ..S.........................  
On Arming for War with England......................................... 15
On the Increase of the Navy                 ..22
On the New Army Bill          .           .                        33
On Internal Improvement                    .           .55
On the Emancipation of South America  . .79
On the Seminole War.. 100
On Protection to Home Industry  .    .139
On Internal. Improvement  ..162
On the Greek Revolution        .           .185
Address to his Constituents  ..194
On American Industry         ..                   .................. 219
On African Colonization..                                           267
On the Charge of Corruption      .          .285
On Retiring from Office       .           .30


                             APPENDIX.
On Manufactures,         ...................            .    .     1
On his Return from Ghent        .           .                  4
On the Spanish Treaty .....................................................  6
On the Mission to South America  .    .1...................... i

 
This page in the original text is blank.

 












                     P R E F A C E I











  TuE biography of our country's most distinguished and honored statesmen is emr-
nently fraught with encouragement and hope for her aspiring youth-especiallyfor
those who enter upon the stage of active life unportioned and unheralded by the
partial voice of powerful friends and kindred. Of the eight citizens who have at-
tained the honors of the Presidency, Washington was descended from a family of
country squires, Adams from a Puritan ancestry of unpresumning worth and undis-
tinguished talent, and Harrison immediately from a signer of the Declaration of In-
dependence, and remotely from one of the Judges who condemned Charles 1. to the
block. The others belong to that very large number who, in fashionable parlance,
'had no grandfathers'-that is, who achieved eminence for themselves, and did
not receive it from pedigrees. From Franklin down to Hamilton, the master-spirits
of the Revolution were men who could never have hoped to achieve distinction as
the colonists of a distant monarchy. Each of these carved out for himself a lofty
niche in the Temple of Fame; but seldom have their lineal successors presented any
claim to rival, much less heighten, the glory which still faintly irradiates their brows.
Of how many of the Patriots and Sages of the past generation do we find the glory
reflected in their descendants 

  HENRY CLAY is one of the many among our eminent men who, beside the disad-
vantages of poverty and obscurity,were fated to encounter that of early orphanage.
His father, a clergyman of the Baptist persuasion, died while he was yet very young,
leaving him nothing but a Christian example and an honest name. Yet he found
friends to aid his acquirement of a knowledge of the Law, to which his powers were
early dedicated; he found and attached friends in the new home in the wild west
to which his footsteps were turned while yet in his minority; and at an age when
xmen have rarely ventured to aspire to political distinction, he who had so lately en-
tered Kentucky an unknown and friendless stripling, had passed from a seat in the
Legislature to the Speaker's chair, and thence to the Senate of the United States.

 





PREFACE.



His subsequent career has been such as to teach emphatically to the youth of Amer-
ica this lesson-that no one who is conscious of possessing the requisite qualitiis
need ever apprehend that humility of origin or obscurity of position will depriv
him of opportunities to serve and honor his country.

  The volumes herewith presented are intended to trace clearly the career of Mr,
CLAY from his entrance on the stage of public life down to the present time-mainly
by the light of his own lofty, persuasive and at times impassioned eloquence. A
circumstantial original Memoir is prefixed, while a slender thread of narrative ac-
companies, for the most part, the Speeches, with the view of elucidating them
by a simple setting forth of the time, place and occasion. On this, however,
no great stress is placed.  Mr. CLAN's parliamentary efforts, clear, direct and
vigorous, generally embody all the illustration that is needful to their full understand-
ing, a few words only suffice to set forth their bearing on the spirit and history of
the times. The great importance, i variety and indestructible interest of the topics
he mainly discusses; the character and ability of the orator, the direct and often exact
bearing of his arguments on the controversies and interests of our own time, all
combine to render his Speeches among the most: valuable contributions of Ptio
ism fand Genius to the enlightenment and elevation of die American People.

  No labor has been spared to render this edition not only far more comnplete than
any former one has been, but so perfect that there shall exist no necessity for one th
come after it. The work is stereotyped, so as to afford opportunity for correcting
any errors which may hereafter be detected, and to admit of the addition from time
to time4of the Speeches which Mr. CLA shall make hereafter: so that he who buys
this work may complete it up to any futu  period without extra expense. It is hoped
that this plan will receive the hearty approbation and support of the public, and es-
pecially of the numerous and thick-gathering friends of the Great Statesman of the
West.

  The PORTRtiT which embellishes this volume is copied from an original paidtibc
by GEORGE LINEN, and was recommended by Mr. CLAY, as an excellent and faithful
likeness.

   The View of the BmTIA PLACE OPi HEiarY CLAY was copied from a drawing made
 on the spot.
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                        MEMOIR


                              or




   HENRY                            C LA Y.






 a hise fame is 60 great throughout the world that he sttands in no Deed of an en-omions end yet his worth is muZh
 reter than his fame.  It is impossible not to speak great thns of him, and yet it will be very d-icult to peeoi
 what be deserves.'-Cot oiop.
 - U I desire to pauaoer a part in stihace, whatever I omit will seem the most .orthy to bhae been recorded."-
 CL"t.-Aoe.

 THE most fitting monument in honor of a public man is a
 faithful record of his public acts. If these be worthy, and
 the record simple, time, which destroys all things but good
 deeds and lofty thoughts, will embalm them for eternity. If
 they be base, eulogy adds a lie to their deformities, and they
 must perish of their own disease. In the spirit of this truth
 we address ourselves to the task before us.


 HENRY CLAY was born on the 12th of April, 1777, in a
 district of Hanover County, Virginia, which, from its physi-
 cal character, and for lack of a better name, was familiarly
 known throughout the neighborhood as The Slashes. His
 father was a Baptist clergyman, of fair talent and stern in-
 tegrity; but as he died in 1781, before his character and
 habits could have exerted any influence upon those of his
son, farther reference to them would be aside from our prin-

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



cipal purpose. At the age of four years, then, HENRY was
left, the fifth of seven children, without fortune, to the guar-
dian care of an affectionate mother. She sent him to school
-and he learned to read and write: and, as he grew older,
the rudiments of English grammar, of arithmetic, and geo-
graphy were acquired in the lowly district school, with
which, at that time as well as this, Virginia was by no means
too plentifully supplied. But here his education, so far as
it depended on the mere formal teaching of others, abruptly
stopped. His mother was poor-not only unable to procure
for him the advantage of methodical study-buit forced tc
require his active services in aid of her own exertions. He.
applied himself to the labor of the field with alacrity and
diligence ; he shunned no task, but embraced all duties;
and there yet live those who remember to have seen him
oftentimes riding his sorry horse with a rope bridle, no saddle,
and a bag of grain, to Mrs. Darricott's mill on the Pamunkey
river. By the familiar name of the MILL BoY OF THE:
SLASHES, do these men and their descendants even now per-
petuate the remembrance, or the tradition, of his lowly, yet
dutiful and unrepining employments.

  During this period of his life he enjoyed the counsel and
the care of his beloved mother, who was a woman fitted by
her natural qualities to develop in her son, by her daily in-
tercourse with him, that high-minded frankness and sinceri-
ty of character which marked his course through the whole
of his subsequent career. But, greatly to his regret, he was
separated from her, and placed as clerk in a small retail
store with Mr. Richard Denny, in Richmond, Virginia; but
we have no evidence that this, his new employment, was
more to his taste than it was to that of his great predecessor,

 





MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



PATRICK HENRY, celebrated not more for his oratory thanr for
the zeal and earnestness with which he wielded it in defence
of his countrymen. He remained in this situation, however,
until 1790, when his mother, having married Mr. HENRY
WATKINS, removed to Woodford County, Kentucky, where
she lived until her death, which occurred but a few years
since. At her departure, he was placed in the office of Mr.
PETER TINSLEY, Clerk of the High Court of Chancery in the
City of Richmond-' being left,' as he says himself, in his
latest speech, I without guardian, without pecuniary means of
support, to steer his course as he might or could.' While
here as clerk, he sought, as far as his leisure would admit,
to repair, by his own irregular but earnest exertions, the lack
of a systematic and thorough discipline; and he was aided
in this endeavor, and encouraged in his half-formed inten-
tions to make Law his profession, by the counsel and con-
versation of the then venerable Chancellor WYTHE, who was
frequently drawn to the office by his official business, and
whose friendly attention was attracted by the mental acute-
ness and discreet deportment of the youthful student. The
Chancellor finally employed him as his amanuensis; and he
thus learned indirectly much that was useful in his after life.
His principal business was to write, at the dictation of the
Chancellor, his decisions, and comments upon those of the
Court of Appeals, by which they were now and then revers-
ed: the drudgery of his task, which, at best, was tiresome
enough, was greatly enhanced by the passionate fondness
of his employer for Grecian Literature, which led him to in-
troduce into all his papers most liberal quotations from his
favorite authors; and these, in their original, of which the
laborious clerk knew not a letter, he had to copy. But of
this he made no complaint; it taught him the great lesson
                            2



9

 



MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



of patient labor, which few men learn too wells and which,
in fact, lays the foundation of all permanent greatness and
worth. But he also learned the principles of grammar and
the logical and rhetorical structure of sentenceD: and he
found still farther aid in this in the direct advice and gui-
dance of his venerable friend.

  Mr. CLAY'S situation with Mr. TINSLEY introduced him to
the acquaintance of many of the ablest and most distin-
guished lawyers of the Old Dominion; and the same excel-
lent qualities of mind and heait which had drawn the no-
tice and secured the favor of Chancellor WYTHE gained for
him the friendship and esteem of ROBERT BROOKE, Esq.
then Attorney General, and formeily Governor, of Virginia.
At the invitation of this worthy man, in the latter part of
1796, he took up his residence with him for the purpose of
a more thorough and systematic study of the law than his
situation with Mr. TINSLEY rendered practicable. In his pre-
vious intercourse with the members of the bar, in his attend-
ance upon the courts, and in the copying of papers and that
attention to the general business of a lawyer's office which
the duties of his clerkship rendered necessary, with his ac-
tive mind and observing disposition, he must have acquired
much valuable legal information and some acquaintance with
the general rules of legal process. But it was during this
year that he spent with Mr. BROOKE, that he principally
pursued the methodic study of the law.

  At the end of the year, in November, 1797, Mr. CLAY,
obtained a license to practice his profession, from the Judges
of the Court of Appeals in his native State. But he chose
not to attempt its practice therebut rather to follow the fob,,



10

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



tunes of his household gods. The same year he removed
to the then little village of Lexington, in Kentucky, where
for the first time, a beardless stranger, he was seen upon its
streets. In the words of Chief Justice ROBERTSON, of that
State, 'he came leaning alone on Providence, a widowed
mother's prayers and the untutored talents with which God
bad been pleased to bless him.' Though he opened an
office immediately upon his arrival, it does not appear that
he engaged for some time in the active duties of his profes-
sion. But to some extent it would seem that he must have
entered into business; for he tells us, in his speech pro-
nounced at Lexington, June 9, 1842, that he 'went there
without patrons, without the favor or countenance of the
great or opulent, and without the means of paying his week-
ly board.'  But the most of his time was devoted to the
further prosecution of his legal studies, and to the general
discipline of his mind, which he still felt to be very incom-
plete. For the purpose of improvement in debate he joined
a village club; but for a long while took no active part ill
its proceedings. He seemed, to them who knew him slight-
ly, to lack vigor and energy, was thin, slender and of appa-
rently feeble constitution But even at that time it was re-
marked by a distinguished literary gentleman of Lexington,
that Mr. CLAY'S colloquial style was more habitually correct
and elegant than that of any other young man he had ever
known. His fellow-members of the Society, who knew his
ability in this respect, were surprised at his unbroken silence
at all their meetings; and a remark he whispered to his
neighbor one evening after a long debate, just as the ques-
tion was about to be taken, that the subject did not seem to
him to have been exhausted, appears to have awakened
unusual attention. His words were heard by several and the



11

 



MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



Chairman was requested not to put the question then, as Mr.
CLAY would speak. He was thus directly called upon and
manifested extreme embarrassment. He had never before
made an attempt at public speaking, and seemed diffident
and distrustful of his own abilities in an unusual degree.
He had without doubt framed and uttered in his closet many
a speech fitted for, but never pronounced in the Halls of
Justice; for this was betrayed by his opening words. He
lacked confidence to keep his seat; and as he rose, and with
marked confusion attempted to speak, ' Gentlemen of the
Jury' were the first words that fell from his lips. His mis-
take disturbed him the more, and he blundered them out
again. But seeing the sympathy of his audience, who ap-
preciated his feelings and were unwilling to add to his em-
barrassment by seeming to notice it, their courtesy gave him
confidence; he shook off his timidity, and launched forth
into an oration of great logical strength, of extreme beauty
of diction and of thrilling eloquence, which excited the ad-
miration and the profoundest respect of his hearers. Thus,
was first sounded that voice, which like a stirring trumpet,
arousing to all that is noble in action and patriotic in feeling,
has for nearly half a century pealed through the length and
the breadth of our land. After this Mr. CLAY was a constant
attendant upon the debates of the Society, and became at
once one of its most active members. His voice mingled
in every discussion, and he took good care to make thorough
preparation upon every topic of debate; his arguments al-
ways bore marks of careful thought and evinced close rea-
sonirig and a remarkable power of eloquent expression. He
soon threw off the timidity which at first had so sadly per-
plexed him, and acquired that perfect self-command and
readiness of reply, which upon so many important occ8s



12

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



in after life, he has exhibited alike to the admiration of
others and to his own advantage.

   A few months after this first trial of his oratorial powers,
 Mr. CLAY was admitted to practice before the Quarter Ses-
 sions of Fayette County, a Court of general jurisdiction.
 The Lexington bar was at that time celebrated foi its ability;
 numbering among its members, JOHN BRECKENRIDGE, GEORGE
 NICHOLAS, JAMES HUGHES, WILLIAM MURRAY, and many
 others equally distinguished by intellectual strength and their
 profound legal acquirements. Entering into instant and un-
 aided rivalry with these lawyers of establishedreputation,
 Mr. CLAY'S hopes of immediate success were far from being
 sanguine. In the same speech to which we have before re-
 ferred, he says, with simple and touching grace, 'I remem-
 ber how comfortable I thought I should be if I could make
 pound;100 Virginia money per year, and with what delight I re-
 ceived the first fifteen shilling fee.' But his successofar ex-
 ceeded his most sanguine expectations. He 'immediately
 rushed into a lucrative practice.' The reason of this is easily
 seen, and is, to some extent, indicated by the character of the
 cases committed to his care. In a knowledge of the Law, of its
 great fundamental principles, and of the precedents by which
 these were to be maintained, as well as of the rules of plead-
 ing, and the minute details of Legal Practice, he was of
 course far inferior to the veterans of the bar, in whose pres-
 ence he had with such bold chivalry thrown down his glove.
 But he was even then one of the most fluent and eloquent
 speakers that ever addressed a Jury. He had a most musi-
cal voice, a captivating address, and a power of appealing to
the passions and sympathies of those he sought to move,
which rarely failed to ensure success. His personal charac-



is

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



ter was of the noblest stamp; frank and generous to a fault,
ardent in his attachments, sincere in all he said and did,
scorning with his whole soul even a trick or an unworthy
act, and cordially despising the man that could be guilty of
either, he bore about him that deportment and dignity which
demanded as his right, and always secured, the perfect con-
fidence of every man with whom he came in contact. He
was quick to detect the workings of the minds of others, and
prompt to take advantage of any bias, however slight, in
favor of the cause he had espoused. These qualities placed
him far in advance of the ablest of his elder brethren at the
bar in the conduct especially of criminal cases, where the
issue depended rather upon the judgment and feelings of a
Jury than upon the cooler and more independent decision
of the court.  It was in this department of his profession
therefore that Mr. CLAY was principally engaged; his suc
cess was most decided, and the reputation he speedily ac
quired most brilliant and distinguished.

  One of his biographers has cited several instances of thei
ability he displayed in particular cases and of the success
which crowned his exertions. The records of the Kentucky
courts are filled with the proofs of his legal power and of his
extended practice. One of his earliest cases, there present-
ed, is the defence of Mrs. Phelps, the respected descendant
of a worthy family, and the blameless wife of an upright
farmer: she was indicted for murder, and it was proved, be-
yond possibility of cavil, by several witnesses, that she had
killed her husband's sister, by shooting her through the heart
upon a slight offence-the act for the commission of which
she stood on trial. The circumstances of the case, the char-
acter of the assused5 the beauty and amiable department of



14

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



her victim, and the profoundest sympathy for her husband,
bereaved of one dear friend, by the hand of another, awak-
ened the deepest feeling and gave to the trial interest of a
thrilling intensity. It was no slight tribute to his ability that
Mr. CLAY was employed in the defence of so delicate a case;
but the success which attended his efforts, fully justified the
confidence reposed in him, and established his reputation as
a criminal lawyer of unequalled promise. The fact of kill-
ing, of course, could  not  be contested. The only point
upon which a question could be raised, was as to the denomi-
nation of the offence: was it murder or manslaughter' The
prosecution was urged with great power and clearness; but
Mr. CLAY not only succeeded in convincing the jury that the
crime committed was only manslaughter, but so moved the
pity of the Court and the sympathy of the gathered multi-
tude, that his client suffered only the lowest possible punish-
ment allowed by the law.

  Soon after this Mr. CLAY defended, in Harrison County,
two Germans, father and son, indicted for a murder proved
to have been committed under highly aggravated circumstan-
ces. Here, as in the other case, Mr. CLAY'S efforts were ex-
erted to prove that the deed they had committed came under
the description of manslaughter, and not under that for which
they were indicted, and thus to save the lives of the wretch-
ed prisoners. The trial lasted for five days; and at its con-
clusion Mr. CLAiwas completely successful. Not satisfied
with this verdict in his favor-probably, though of this we
are not informed, upon the ground that the jury could only
return a verdict upon the specific indictment-he moved an
arrest of judgment, and after a close argument of a day suc-
ceeded also in this; so that his clients were at once set free.



15

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



This result took the whole audience by surprise; the pris-
oners themselves, when they became convinced of its reality,
manifested the utmost gratitude for Mr. CLAY's exertions,
though it must be confessed they were outdone in the enthu.
siasm with which they expressed their thanks by an old and
withered woman, the wife of one and the mother of the
other; for, in the excess of her thankfulness, which forbade
all thought of the proprieties of the place, in the crowded
court-room, she threw her arms about the neck of Mr. CLAY
and covered him at once with kisses and confusion. The
audience, however, had too much respect for the sincerity of
her emotions to turn their exhibition to ridicule ; and Mr.
CLAY, though he certainly escaped her blandishments as soon
as possible, received them with a graceful dignity which gave
him additional favor in the eyes of the Court as well as of his
somewhat too ardent, but sincere, admirer.

  We find recorded one or two other incidents of his early
professional practice to which, for our purpose, no more than
a bare reference will be necessary. The skill with which he
could turn to his advantage a doubtful technical point, and
the dignity of character which he brought into the advocacy
of his cause, were well illustrated at the second trial, granted
by the Court of Fayette County on motion of the Prosecuting
Attorney, of a Mr. Willis, who was clearly proved to have
committed murder, but escaped conviction by a disagreement
of the jury. When the new trial came on, after listening
attentively to the arguments of the Attorney for the State,
Mr. CLAY opened his case by laying down in its broadest ex-
tent and urging as directly applicable to the case on trial,
the rule of law that no man should twice be put in jeopardy
for the same offence. The second trial of his client, there



16

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



fore, he urged was clearly illegal and a conviction would be
impossible. The startled Court stopped the speaker and for-
bade the argument. Mr. CLAY declared with dignity and
solemn earnestness that if he could not argue the whole case
to the jury he had no more to say, and abruptly left the
room. Of course the Court soon summoned him back and
allowed him to pursue his own course. He now, with re-
doubled vehemence, renewed his argument, and gained "
verdict solely upon this point of law-without any reference
to the nature of the testimony that had been adduced.

   In criminal cases, which were much the most frequent at
that early day, in the State of Kentucky, Mr. CLAY was al-
most uniformly engaged on the side of the defendant. He
was led to this by his strong natural sympathies not less than
by the high reputation he had acquired in the professional
conduct of similar cases. And, it is recorded, as an evidence
of his remarkable power at the bar, that not one of the many
prisoners tried for capital crimes whom he defended, ever
received sentence of death at the hands of the law. Only
one case appears in which be acted the part of Public Prose-
cutor; and in that, he procured the conviction of a slave who
was indicted for murder in having killed his overseer in re-
turn for a blow before inflicted upon him for some imaginary
offence. That even this discharge of his duty was repugnant
to the inherent kindness of Mr. CLAY'S nature is shown by
the fact that he has often been heard to regret, more than
any other act of his life, the part he took in the conviction
of this friendless negro.


  But a single example of his ability and success in the trial
of civil cases is preserved, though it is said generally that he
                            3



17

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



had no rival in the management of suits that involved the
land-laws of Virginia and Kentucky. In one of these cases,
being called away by business of his own, he left the whole
to his associate counsel. Two days were spent upon the ar-
gument, and Mr. CLAY'S colleague had been foiled at every
point. Just as the trial was about to close Mr. CLAY entered
the Court; and, though he knew next to nothing of the na-
ture of the testimony, after a brief consultation with his friend,
he drew up in written form the instructions he wished the
Court to give to the jury, and maintained his positions with
such cogency and force that his request was granted, and the
case was at once decided in his favor. For the quickness of
his comprehension and the ready power with which he seized
upon, and maintained, the principal points of any case, so
remarkably evinced upon this trial, Mr. CLAY in his after life
has been especially distinguished.

  Mr. CLAY'S first entrance upon political life was proudly
signalized by that chivalric boldness, so marked a feature of
his whole character, which threw to the winds every thought
of personal popularity and gave force only to the generous
impulses of his heart and to his own profound conviction of
the truth and justice of the principle he had espoused. In
1797, the very year in which he had first put his foot within
her borders, Kentuckv was taking measures to frame for her.
self a new Constitution. In many respects the provisions of
the old one were. unsuited to her rapid growth and to the pe-
culiar temper of her inhabitants. Slavery had been legal-
ized upon her soil and had become firmly wrought into her
social frame-work.  nhis, though by no means a subject of
general complaint, was still regarded with deep hostility by
a respectable minority of her people; and they had submiu-



18

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



ted for consideration a plan for its gradual and safe abolition.
Their proposed object at once enlisted the most ardent sym-
pathies of Mr. CLAY; and by all the means within hisr reach,
through the public press and in assemblies of the people, his
best powers were exerted for its success. He was impelled
to this course by a deep conviction of the justice of the cause
not less than by the profoundest sympathies of his nature.
Then, as now and through all his life, he expressed, openly
and frankly, his thorough opposition to slavery in all its
forms-deploring its existence, zealously seeking to break
its chains, when the disruption would not endanger the peace
and happiness of the slaves themselves, as well as of their
masters. and to soften its asperities by all the means within
his reach. Then. as now, he regarded the sanctitvrof Law
and the well-being of Society as considerations of the highest
importance-and the first as the sole condition of the last.
He looked upon slavery as it exists at the present day in sev-
eral of the States of this Union. as a grievous misfortune-a
sad calamitv which from its nature could not be shaken off
with the tyrannv of the mother country which had entailed
it upon them. It had become deeply rooted in their social
and political institutions. had intertwined itself with all the.
interests of the people. and had drawn to itself a large par-
tion of the life of the State. Any sudden effort to uproot it
from its deep foundation. he then perceived. as clearly as he
has always seen it since, must be attended with most immi-
nent danger to the institutions and interests that have grown
up around it, and must spread desolation over the fair face
of society. Nor in his view wonld a sumnmary emancipation
be productive of less certain ruin to the slaves themselves
than to the other members of the commonwealth. Without
exception they were ignorant, destitute of moral culture, and



19

 




MEMOIR OF HENRY CLAY.



by no means prepared for the unprotected condition into
which their rash and ill judging friends of the present day
are striving to see them plunged. All these considerations
had the same weight with Mr. CLAY in 1797 as they have
ever exerted since; and the plan of relief to which he then
gave his ardent support, and which he still regards as upon
the whole the safest and the best, embraced them all in
its provisions. It proposed that the generation then in bond-
age should so remain; but that all their offspring, born after
the passage of the law, should receive their freedom on arriv-
ing at a certain age; and made it the duty of their masters
to give to them, meantime, such instruction as should fit them
for the contemplated change in their condition. This plan
had been some years before adopted in Pennsylvania-at the
instance of Dr. FRANKLIN; and the fact that a man of so
eminent ability and so highly practical in all his schemes
had given to it his warm approval, spoke almost as loudly in
its favor as did the -distinguished success with which it had
been crowned in his noble State.

  But though founded in essential justice and shown to be
essentially safe to the commonwealth, the peopl