CHAPTER III.

HENRY CLAY,

THE POLITICIAN.

THE facts and events which mark the career of Mr. Clay have frequently been portrayed. Some of the most important of these it will be necessary to recite at the outset; though biographical detail forms but quite a subordinate element of our present design.

The father of our orator was a very respectable Baptist preacher, in the County of Hanover, Virginia, commonly known as "The Slashes," where, on the 12th of April, 1777, his fifth child, Henry, was born. At an early age, he was left without father or fortune to buffet adverse storms, and to become inured to manual toil. At the age of fourteen he entered a small drug store in Richmond, Virginia, kept by Mr. Richard Denny. His stay there was short, and at the commencement of 1792 he entered the office of Mr. Peter Tinsley, clerk of the High Court of Chancery. In this situation he, of course, came into personal contact with the most distinguished men in the State, and attracted their attention so strongly by his talents and amiable qualities, that some of them, particularly Chancellor Wythe and