of this attractive group. Mr. Clay handed me to the carriage; and, holding both my hands in the strong grasp of friendship, "Let us trust," said he, "that we may meet again, either here or elsewhere; and send those boys of yours to St. Louis, and let them come to me, and I will do all I can for them; and God in Heaven bless you." Such were his farewell words, and still they linger on my ear, and still they dwell in my heart.

As the carriage swept through the trees, I turned to look once more at Ashland, and Henry Clay still stood upon the threshold

*

This illustrious American was born April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia, in a neighbourhood called "The Slashes" (a swamp).

"The millboy of the Slashes," a name which has kindled so much sentiment in the bosoms of the American people, and the mimicry of which constituted a part of every public political pageant of the Whig party in the Presidential campaign of 1844, and which will still be poetic when the generation which first felt its power shall have passed away—which, indeed, will never cease to be so, while poetry is natural to man-had its foundation in the filial and fraternal duty of Henry Clay, who after he was big enough, was seen, whenever the meal barrel was low, going to and fro on the road between his mother's house and Mrs. Darricott's mill, on the Pamunkey river, mounted on a bag that was thrown across a pony that was guided by a rope bridle; and thus he became familiarly known, by the people living on the line of his travel, as "The millboy of the Slashes."

The following extract from his early history is given in his own words:

"In looking back upon my origin and progress through life, I have great reason to be thankful. My father died in 1781, leaving me an infant of too tender years to retain any recollection of his smiles or endearments. My surviving parent removed to this State in 1792, leaving me, a boy of fifteen years of age, in the office of the High Court of Chancery, in the city of Richmond, without guardian, without pecuniary means of support, to steer my course as I might or could. A neglected education was improved by my own irregular exertions, without the benefit of systematic instruction. I studied law principally in the office of a lamented friend, the late Governor Brooke, then Attorney-General of Virginia, and also under the auspices of the venerable and lamented Chancellor Wythe, for whom I had acted as amanuensis. I obtained a license to practise the profession from the

Judges of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and established my. self in Lexington, in 1797, without patrons, without the favour or countenance of the great or opulent, without the means of paying my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar uncommonly distinguished by eminent members. I remember how comfortable I thought I should be if I could make one hundred pounds, Virginia money, per year, and with what delight I received the first fifteen shillings fee. My hopes were more than realized. I immediately rushed into a successful and lucrative practice."

Mr. Clay, whenever disengaged from public duties, practised the law with distinguished success; it is said that no client, in peril of life, ever addressed himself to the zeal and abilities of this unwearied advocate without being saved.

Early in life Mr. Clay became a Statesman, and his familiarity with public events, at periods of great national excitement, chastened his ardent character, and expanded his judgment. The conciliatory spirit of this able leader has, on various occasions, been eminently useful in calming the panics of the country, and in pouring oil upon the troubled waters of her Councils.

Mr. Clay was one of the five Commissioners sent to Ghent, in 1814 he was attached to the war party.

Coinciding without reserve, as I do, with Mr. Calhoun, in the grand doctrine of Nullification, I still behold the patriotic efforts of Mr. Clay to produce a Compromise, and thus to restore the internal peace of the country, with the highest admiration.

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"I rise on this occasion," said Mr. Clay in the Senate, " tuated by no motives of a private nature, by no personal feelings, and for no personal objects; but exclusively in obedience to a sense of the duty which I owe to my country-I am anxious to find out some principle of mutual accommodation, to satisfy, as far as practicable, both parties. As I stand before my God, I declare, I have looked beyond those considerations (party feelings and party causes), and regarded only the vast interests of this whole people. If I had thought of myself, I should never have brought it (the bill) forward. I know well the perils to which I expose myself. I might have silently gazed on the raging storm, enjoyed its thunders, and left those who are charg ed with the Vessel of State to conduct it as they could. Pass this bill, tranquillize the country, restore confidence and affection in the Union, and I am willing to go home to Ashland, and renounce public service for ever. I have been accused of ambition. Yes, I have ambition; but it is the ambition of being the humble instrument in the hands of Providence to reconcile a divided people-once more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted

land-the pleasing ambition of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosperous, and fraternal people. I say, SAVE THE COUNTRY, SAVE THE UNION, SAVE THE AMERICAN SYSTEM."

On the Missouri question, which arose when the Territory of Missouri, in 1818, asserted its claim to be incorporated as a State; and which question threatened the Union with convulsion, Mr. Clay came forward with the resolutions which harmonized the conflicting parties. The Territory claimed to be received as a State on the same footing with other Slaveholding States, it was objected to this that the compromise of the Federal Constitution, regarding Slavery, respected only its limits at the time; and that it was most remote from the views of the parties to this arrangement, to have the domain of Slavery extended on that basis.

The opposition which the people of Missouri had encountered had roused their anger; they inserted a clause in their Constitution which was most obnoxious to the rest of the Union. It ran as follows:

"It shall be the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to or settling in this State, under any pretext whatsoever."

On the 10th of February, Mr. Clay reported and submitted the following resolution :

"Resolved, That the State of Missouri be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition, that the said State shall never pass any law preventing any description of persons from coming to and settling in the said State, who now are, or may hereafter become, citizens of any of the States of this Union."

The Compromise was founded on this Resolution, and was mainly effected by the temper, sagacity, and indefatigable zeal of Mr. Clay.

Thus on these two important, as well as on other minor occasions, has Mr. Clay fulfilled the Christian behest of Mediation; his justice respected the rights of all parties, and his wisdom knew how to satisfy them.

Mr. Clay is tall and of muscular frame; walks firmly, and looks as if he rejoiced in healthful vigorous exercise; he is nearly seventy years old, but I have seen many men of fifty show more of age than the Statesman farmer of Kentucky. His eye is not large, but bright; his forehead high and broad; his mouth is

large and wide, and firmly compressed; the pictures of Mr. Clay are provoking in their dissimilitude; the painter's usually flattering art has never done him even common justice; his limners have painted only the earthly, not the heavenly, Clay.

Mr. Clay was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States seven times. He was Secretary of State during the Presidency of Mr. Adams, and on the close of that Administration, remained in private life two years. In 1831 he was elected to the United States Senate, where he held his seat till 1842, having spent forty years, save one, in the public service.

It may be desirable to remark that the application of the English term of WHIG was first assumed, in the United States, by the Opposition to the principles and Administration of General Jackson. By degrees, in consequence of the ever-varying modification of party denominations, this term has now become exclusively appropriated to the system of politics of which Mr. Clay is the acknowledged representative.

The following beautiful extracts are taken from Mr. Clay's Farewell Address to the Senate, in 1842 :

"Full of attraction, however, as a seat in the Senate is, sufficient as it is to satisfy the aspirations of the most ambitious heart, I have long determined to relinquish it, and to seek that repose which can be enjoyed only in the shades of private life, in the circle of one's own family, and in the tranquil enjoyments included in one enchanting word-HOME.

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"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 recognised a father's smile, nor felt his warm caresses; poor, penniless, without the favour 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 my foot upon her generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness, caressed as though I had been a favourite child, and patronised with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the highest honours of the State have been freely bestowed upon me; and when, in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction, I seemed to be assailed by all the rest of the world, she interposed her broad and impenetrable shield, 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 for ever close upon me, I hope that my earthly remains will be laid under her green sod with those of her gallant and patriotic sons.

"That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition, especially in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am ready to own; and those who suppose that I have been assuming the dictatorship, have only mistaken for arrogance or assumption that ardour and devotion which are natural to my constitution, and which I may have displayed with too little regard to cold, calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zealously supporting important national measures of policy which I have presented and espoused.

"In the course of a long and arduous public service, especially during the last eleven years in which I have held a seat in the Senate, from the same ardour and enthusiasm of character, I have no doubt, in the heat of debate, and in an honest endeavour to maintain my opinions against adverse opinions alike honestly entertained, as to the best course to be adopted for the public welfare, I may have often inadvertently and unintentionally, in moments of excited debate, made use of language that has been offensive, and susceptible of injurious interpretation toward my brother Senators. If there be any here who retain wounded feelings of injury or dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to assure them that I now offer the most ample apology for any departure on my part from the established rules of parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure the Senators, one and all, without exception and without reserve, that I retire from this chamber without carrying with me a single feeling of resentment or dissatisfaction to the Senate or any one of its Members.

"I go from this place under the hope that we shall mutually consign to perpetual oblivion whatever personal collisions may at any time unfortunately have occurred between us; and that our recollections shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of mind with mind, those intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions of the powers of logic, argument, and eloquence, honourable to the Senate and to the Nation, in which each has sought and contended for what he deemed the best mode of accomplishing one common object, the interest and happiness of our beloved country. To these thrilling and delightful scenes it will be my pleasure and my pride to look back in my retirement with unmeasured satisfaction.

"May the most precious blessings of Heaven rest upon the whole Senate, and each Member of it, and may the labours of