Chapter XII: Preface (10)

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 be sufficient 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.

Such was the bill introduced by Mr. Clay, and great was the astonishment of the administration party in view of its munificent provisions, and that exemplary impartiality, which consulted the interests of all sections of the country alike. Being a candidate for the presidency, they had confidently expected that he would make such a disposition of the question as to secure the support of all the western states, or, at least, so manage as to make it bear favorably on his election. Great, therefore, was their astonishment, in subjecting his bill to their microscopic scrutiny, in not being able to find the remotest reference to _self_, not the slightest looking towards the presidency, and great was their disappointment also. They had tried various schemes to destroy his popularity, without success, and, thinking that he would reason on this subject as _they themselves_, concluded that he would become entangled in their snare. They almost began to chuckle over the anticipated cry of ‘bargain’ and ‘corruption,’ with which they should be able to fill the land, on the appearance of his bill. Great was their disappointment, therefore, when his sterling integrity, his purity of intention, appeared in their place.

On the twentieth of June, Mr. Clay’s land bill was taken up by the senate. He exerted himself nobly in its defence, and was opposed by Mr. Benton, who, together with other administration men, strenuously supported the policy of reducing the price of a part of the public lands, and of surrendering the remainder to the states in which they lie.

Efforts were made to postpone and amend the bill, but it was so ably enforced, and the objections to it so completely refuted, that it passed the senate by a vote of twenty to eighteen, on the third of July. The house, in regard to some of its provisions, disagreed, and this circumstance enabled its enemies to postpone its consideration, until December, next following, by a vote of ninety-one to eighty-eight. At the next session it was taken up and passed, by votes of twenty-four to twenty in the senate, and ninety-six to forty in the house, and sent to the president for his signature. Had he returned it immediately, even with his veto, it would have become a law, according to the constitution, requiring a vote of two thirds; but, unfortunately for the country, the president’s constitutional privilege of retaining bills a designated length of time, did not expire until after the adjournment of congress, which gave general Jackson an opportunity of taking the business of legislation out of the hands of the people, which he eagerly embraced――to trample this bill, as Mr. Benton exultingly said, ‘under his big foot,’ although he knew it expressed the obvious wishes of the people. He, therefore, kept the bill, until the commencement of the next session, (fifth of December, 1833,) when he returned it to the house, with his objections. He regarded Mr. Clay’s proposition of giving a certain per centage of the sales of the public lands to the states in which they were located, as an ‘indirect and undisguised violation of the pledge given by congress to the states before a single cession was made, abrogating the condition on which some of the states came into the union, and setting at nought the terms of cession spread upon the face of every grant, under which the title of that portion of the public lands are held by the federal government.’ In close connection with his objection to surrendering a _part_ of the public domain to the several states, as mentioned, came his proposal to yield them the _whole_. To grant them a _part_, would be unconstitutional; but to grant them the _whole_, would be constitutional. This reasoning is perfectly _sui generis_; presenting a singular specimen of _logic and consistency_ united. It behoved the president to support his veto by some prop, but no person supposed he would select such a crooked and frail one. The fact that he did, shows how long and tedious must have been his wanderings through the political forest, with his executive axe upon his shoulder, in search of a straight and firm one. The truth of the whole matter probably is, that the veto originated more from his personal hostility to Mr. Clay himself, than from any valid constitutional objection to his land bill. This view of the subject receives strong confirmation, by a reference to his message of December fourth, 1832. In this, the president _specifically recommended_ the basis of _just such a bill_ as that introduced by Mr. Clay. _Stubborn facts_ justify us in saying, that if the same bill, containing the same provisions, had been introduced and advocated by Mr. Benton, or Mr. Buchanan, or indeed by any ardent supporter of the administration, the veto never would have been thought of. But it was presented by a hated hand; a hand, that, in the estimation of the president, polluted every thing it touched, and he indignantly spurned its contents to the dust; a hand respecting which he was always ready to ask, ‘can any GOOD THING come out of it?’ There is too much truth in the remark that has been made of him, both by his friends and foes, thousands of times――‘_he would have every thing his own way_.’

But, though defeated by the despotic will of one man, Mr. Clay was not, and could not be, silenced by it. While he had strength to stand up in the councils of his country, he resolved to stand firmly by the side of her rights, and paralyze, if possible, the hand uplifted to infringe them. Though not a participator in those scenes of blood and carnage, in which her broad and beautiful fields were won, yet his sympathizing heart too vividly portrayed the floods of tears, and treasure, and anguish, which the eastern states poured out in perfecting their title papers, to sit tamely down and see them defrauded of their interest in these. The tombs of their heroes who fell in these struggles, would cry aloud for vengeance, if he sealed his mouth, and hid himself, when he saw the robber approaching. No! Henry Clay was not the man to act thus; his country’s rights were _his_ rights, her wishes _his_ wishes, and he would maintain the former, and consult the latter, at any cost. The ‘big foot,’ therefore, of general Jackson, though it ruthlessly ‘trampled’ on his _work_, dared not ‘trample’ on HIM, and he vigorously set about exposing the fallacy, and puerility, even, of the president’s reasons for his veto. This he did in a report which he submitted to the senate, from the committee on public lands, May second, 1834, with special reference to the return of the land bill. Subsequently, from time to time, during several years, efforts were made to wrest the public domain from its rightful owners, which Mr. Clay successfully resisted, and finally succeeded in placing it beyond the reach of those who were bent upon its plunder, giving to each section of the country its equitable share in it. His exertions in accomplishing this have established a foundation for his fame to rest upon, as immovable as the hills which they protected, and which shall endure as long as the verdure which clothes them shall be an object of grateful contemplation.

In 1831–32, Mr. Van Buren’s nomination as minister to England came before the senate for confirmation. Mr. Clay opposed it, on the ground of that gentleman’s anti-republican conduct in giving, while secretary of state, instructions to Mr. McLane. In these he not only manifested a desire to attach unnecessary blame to the United States, in their intercourse with Great Britain, but unjustly disparaged, in the eyes of that power, the preceding administration. He stated, that its acts had induced England to withhold from them certain privileges, which it otherwise would have extended to them. On the objectionable portions of these instructions, Mr. Clay animadverted with merited severity. ‘According to Mr. Van Buren,’ said he, ‘on our side _all was wrong_――on the British side _all was right_. We brought forward nothing but claims and pretensions; the British government asserted, on the other hand, a clear and incontestible right. We erred, in too tenaciously and too long insisting upon our pretensions, and not yielding at once to the force of just demands. And Mr. McLane was commanded, to avail himself of all the circumstances in his power to mitigate our offence, and to dissuade the British government from allowing their feelings, justly incurred by the past conduct of the party driven from power, to have an adverse influence towards the American party now in power. Sir, was that becoming language, from one independent nation to another? Was it proper in the mouth of an American minister? Was it in conformity with the high, unsullied, and dignified character of our previous diplomacy? Was it not, on the contrary, the language of an humble vassal to a proud and haughty lord? Was it not prostrating and degrading the American eagle before the British lion?’

The nomination was rejected in the senate by the casting vote of Mr. Calhoun, the vice president. Mr. Clay’s opposition to it was based upon grounds purely national――on a desire to maintain the dignity and honor of his country’s character. It was fair for him, and for every one, to infer, that the spirit of cringing obsequiousness which Mr. Van Buren evinced, in framing instructions for a foreign minister, would display itself before the court of St. James, in acts as humiliating to her feelings as derogatory to her honor; in a word, that he would take the low attitude of the _parasite_, and not the erect position of the high-minded representative of an independent and mighty nation. How could Mr. Clay’s course have been otherwise? Viewed with the eye of a partisan, it may be deemed impolitic; it may have contributed more than any thing else to elevate Mr. Van Buren to the presidency, by recommending him more strongly to the favor of his party, as the victim of political persecution. Party politics, however, had nothing to do in determining Mr. Clay’s action; this was not the result of the consultations of any clique, nor the product of any party machinery; it was the offspring of his prompt, spontaneous, and unqualified obedience to his country’s mandate. He was never found grovelling among the dingy kennels and filthy sewers of party cabal, seeking the performance of some dirty job; for his country, his _whole country_, gave him too much and too honorable employment to allow him any leisure for this, had he been thus inclined. We have seen that it was his ardent desire to develope the resources of his country to their greatest possible extent, and to cause the tide of prosperity to flow unremittingly into the depositaries of her treasures; and he possessed the abilities requisite to accomplish both, if these could have been suitably directed. Unfortunately, however, circumstances rendered it necessary for them to be almost constantly employed in beating off those who were determined to lay violent hands on her facilities and riches. Instead, therefore, of erecting new political edifices, his time was incessantly occupied in preventing her enemies from tearing down those that were already established. These, he fought and belabored to the last, and plucked from their ravenous jaws many fair portions of his country’s possessions. But it needed more than human aid to overthrow their now combined and embattled forces. We have reached the period rendered memorable by their ruthless ravages, the darkest and most disgraceful of our history――chronicling the vilest acts of those in power, and the noblest deeds of those out of power. Hitherto, in tracing the public career of Mr. Clay, our path has been, for the most part, smooth and flowery; but now it is to become rugged and thorny, for we have arrived at the border of the _great desert of our political annals_――a region of ruin, covered with the black monuments of political depravity and unprincipled faction――a region we would gladly avoid, did not our path lead across it, which we enter reluctantly, and with feelings not unlike those of the traveller who has journeyed through an enlightened country, beautified by art, literature, and science, and is about to pass into one destitute of the conveniences and necessaries of civilization. As he pauses and turns to take a last look of the beauty of the former, before he plunges into the gloom and dreariness of the latter, so let us cast a glance at the bright region behind, before entering the dismal one before us. The vision is cheered by a vast country, basking in the sunshine of high prosperity, with its various departments organized and governed with the most scrupulous fidelity, and with strict regard for the interests of those for whom they were established. No evils are seen to exist, except such as are incident to the most wisely regulated human institutions. On all sides we behold a population harmonious and happy, pursuing their different vocations without clashing or defection, or rejoicing over the rewards of honest and judicious industry. The great sources of their thrift, and most conspicuous features of their country, are the broad, deep, and crystalline streams of agriculture, commerce, currency, and domestic manufactures, with its noble tributary, internal improvement. These meander throughout its whole extent, deposit their sweet waters at every man’s dwelling, and make the whole land vocal with innocent mirth and pure enjoyment. Such was the condition of the country through which we have just journeyed, and, had we leisure, would gladly linger to enumerate more particularly the benefits and blessings which the enriching influences of those magnificent streams generated; but we must hasten to trace their progress in the country before us. Previously, however, to commencing our cheerless march, let us, from our lofty position, survey their appearance, after they enter its lonely wilds and barrens. According to a universal and fundamental law of nature, their magnitude should be greatly increased, but they present an instance of its suspension, for some have dwindled to mere rills, and some have entirely disappeared, while others, encountering some unnatural impediments, have become dammed up, and inundated immense tracts with their waters, which stagnate and pollute the atmosphere with noxious vapors. The appearance of the country and its inhabitants, is sickening to behold. The former, broken, uncouth, and uncultivated, looks as though it were laboring under an attack of delirium tremens. Among the latter, commotion, confusion, and disorder, prevail. There is an abundance of action, but it is that of desperation and excitement, but it is perfectly ♦beneficial. A noble few seem to be struggling virtuously against a tide of ruin and excess; but the great mass appear to be in the hot pursuit of the wildest schemes that human imagination ever invented, trampling upon all order and restraint, diffusing the wildest intoxication through every department of public and private life, and making them the rendezvous of the worst evils known or named among men. The causes of these singular phenomena, a brief recital of facts, as connected with the subject of our memoir, will explain; to gather which, we must enter the territory whose condition we have been anticipating. The first that we notice is the policy of general Jackson towards the bank of the United States――an institution which he found in most prosperous circumstances, and answering every expectation that could be reasonably entertained in relation to such an establishment, and pronounced by the best financiers sound and safe. Nevertheless, soon after entering upon his official duties, he commenced his ‘humble efforts’ at improving its condition, which, however, aimed at nothing more nor less than making it subservient to party interests. Attempts were made to accomplish this, which, however, proved utterly abortive; the president of the bank replying to them, that its management should not be in any way connected with politics, and that the position which it should maintain, would be that of a _faithful and impartial friend_ to the government, and not that of a party or government politician. Enticement proving unsuccessful, resort was then had to threats, which, however, failed of their effect. President Jackson, in his first message, commenced paving the way for the destruction of the bank, by causing the impression to be received that it was unsound, and that _the people_ questioned the constitutionality and expediency of the law by which it was established. In his second message he intimates the same, and makes such allusions to the _veto power_ as to show that he designed to employ it, unless his own peculiar views should be consulted in renewing the charter of the bank. In his third message he takes similar ground in relation to it, but says he ‘leaves the subject to the investigation of the people and their representatives.’ This was promptly made, and resulted in rechartering the bank, by a vote of one hundred and seven to eighty-five in the house, which was as promptly vetoed by him. In his veto message is the following remarkable passage. ‘_If the executive had been called on to furnish the project of a national bank, the duty would have been cheerfully performed._’

In the senate, Mr. Clay met the veto in a becoming manner, and denounced its absurd doctrines in the most faithful manner. On this occasion he gave a full _exposé_ of his views respecting it; proving its spirit at variance with our institutions, and expressed himself decidedly in favor of permanently limiting its exercise. The most absurd of its dogmas related to expounding the constitution, which declared that every public officer might interpret it as he pleased. This called forth one of Mr. Clay’s most impetuous bursts of eloquence. ‘I conceive,’ said he, ‘with great deference, that the president has mistaken the purport of the oath to support the constitution of the United States. No one swears to support it as he understands it, but to support it simply as it is in truth. All men are bound to obey the laws――of which the constitution is supreme――but must they obey them as they understand them, or as they are? If the obligation of obedience is limited and controlled by the measure of information――in other words, if the party is bound to obey the constitution only as he understands it――what would be the consequence? There would be general disorder and confusion throughout every branch of administration, from the highest to the lowest offices――_universal nullification_.’

The insinuations and charges of the president led to a rigid examination of the affairs of the bank, which showed its assets to exceed its liabilities, by more than _forty millions of dollars_. So perfectly safe did congress consider the public deposits in its vaults, that the house passed a vote, of one hundred and nine to forty-six, expressive of their belief of their safety. Not the shadow of evidence was adduced, to give the slightest coloring of truth to the assumptions of the president, or that there was any necessity for augmenting the ‘_limited powers_’ (as he termed them) _of the secretary of the treasury over the public money_. But general Jackson had declared its continuance in the bank dangerous, and he seemed determined on acting as though it were in fact the case. It was requisite for him to have some justifying pretext for the arbitrary measure he designed to adopt, in subverting that noble institution; hence, his hints of the unconstitutionality and inexpediency of its existence, and the unsafety of the people’s money in its vaults; but these were now merged in direct attack. He succeeded in withdrawing from them the public deposits――an act that spread panic, embarrassment, and unparalleled distress, through the country, and was the great prolific cause of causes, of all the evils with which it was subsequently visited. This act, to all intents and purposes, was the _president’s_, although it was performed through the instrumentality of Mr. Taney, the secretary of the treasury, who executed the unconstitutional bidding of the president, for decidedly refusing to execute which, two previous secretaries, Messrs. McLane and Duane, he had removed. Indeed, in his message of 1833, he distinctly avowed, that he urged the removal of the public money.

Mr. Clay introduced resolutions to the senate, calling for a copy of the documents in which the secretary pretended to find precedents, justifying the course he had pursued, which passed the senate, and, on the thirteenth of December, Mr. Taney placed in the hands of that body, a communication, which contained, however, nothing satisfactory, or contemplated by the resolutions. Mr. Clay declared the ground which the secretary assumed, untenable, and, on the twenty-sixth of December, introduced resolutions to the senate, pronouncing his reasons for removing the deposits, as communicated to congress, unsatisfactory and insufficient, and that the president, in dismissing the secretary of the treasury because he would not, in violation of his sense of duty, remove, as directed, the public money, had assumed the exercise of a power over the treasury of the United States, not granted by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people. In defence of these, Mr. Clay made one of his ablest speeches, and forcibly demonstrated the unconstitutionality and illegality of the procedure of the president and secretary. He foretold, with prophetic accuracy, the fatal consequences which would flow from it, and depicted in glowing colors the dangers that threatened the best interests of the nation. These resolutions passed the senate, and, on the seventeenth of April, 1833, the president communicated to the senate his celebrated protest――a document perfectly characteristic of him, replete with the most arrogant assumptions and declarations. This led to a warm and protracted debate, in which Messrs. Clay, Poindexter, Sprague, Frelinghuysen, and Southard, joined, whose powerful arguments drove the president from the last vestige of the fallacious grounds he had assumed, and scattered the doctrines of his protest to the winds. The senate, by a vote of twenty-seven to sixteen, excluded it from the journals, and maintained that the president possessed no right to protest against any of its proceedings. During the discussion, Mr. Leigh, of Virginia, paid Mr. Clay a rich and merited compliment, for his services in allaying the spirit of nullification at the south, in 1832 and 1833. ‘I cannot but remember,’ said he, ‘when all men were trembling under the apprehension of civil war――trembling from the conviction, that if such a contest should arise, let it terminate how it might, it would put our present institutions in jeopardy, and end either in consolidation or disunion; for I am persuaded that the first drop of blood which shall be shed in a civil strife between the federal government and any state, will flow from an irremediable wound, that none may ever hope to see healed. I cannot but remember, that the president, though ♦wielding such a vast power and influence, never contributed the least aid to bring about the compromise that saved us from the evils which all men, I believe, and I, certainly, so much dreaded. The men are not present to whom we are chiefly indebted for that compromise; and I am glad they are absent, since it enables me to speak of their conduct, as I feel I might not without, from a sense of delicacy. I raise my humble voice in gratitude for that service, to _Henry Clay_ of the senate, and _Robert P. Letcher_, of the house of representatives.’

At the time of introducing resolutions pronouncing secretary Taney’s reasons insufficient, Mr. Clay took occasion to refute an assertion which a prominent person had made in relation to his (Mr. Clay’s) connection with the United States bank, which intimated that it was dishonorable. He declared that he did not owe the bank, nor any of its branches, a cent; that he had never received a gratuity from it, in any form; that he had acted as counsel, and transacted a vast amount of business for it, in Ohio, and received only the customary fees; and that, in consequence of endorsing for a friend, he had become indebted to the bank, to a considerable amount, but that, by establishing a system of rigid economy, he had entirely liquidated it.

Immediately after the passage of the resolutions excluding the protest, Mr. Clay introduced others, providing for the restoration of the deposits, and reiterating the insufficiency of the secretary’s reasons for removing them, and remarked, that whatever might be the fate of the resolutions at the other end of the capitol, or in any other building, that consideration ought not to influence, in any degree, their action. They passed the senate, but, as had been expected, were laid on the table in the house.

During the celebrated session, of 1833–34, known as the _panic session_, Mr. Clay performed an amount of labor seldom equalled. He let no suitable occasion pass, without opposing the despotic proceedings of the president, and raising his warning voice against his suicidal policy. The distress caused by the removal of the deposits, and consequent curtailment of the issues of the United States bank, called forth memorials from the people, which poured into congress continually, denouncing the president’s financial experiment, and calling for relief. Many of these were presented by Mr. Clay, who generally accompanied them by a brief speech. One, which he made in presenting a memorial from Kentucky, and one from Troy, contains an accurate and faithful picture of the condition of the country at that period. The evils of the ‘pet bank system,’ soon began to develope themselves. On one occasion, in alluding to it, Mr. Clay remarked as follows. ‘The idea of uniting thirty or forty local banks for the establishment and security of an equal currency, could never be realized. As well might the crew of a national vessel be put on board thirty or forty bark canoes, tied together by a grape vine, and sent out upon the troubled ocean, while the billows were rising mountains high, and the tempest was exhausting its rage on the foaming elements, in the hope that they might weather the storm, and reach their distant destination in safety. The people would be contented by no such fleet of bark canoes, with admiral Taney in their command. They would be heard again calling out for old Ironsides, which had never failed them in the hour of trial, whether amidst the ocean storm, or in the hour of battle.’

The session terminated the last of June, when Mr. Clay set out for Kentucky. While travelling in the stage-coach from Charlestown to Winchester, Virginia, he narrowly escaped death, by its upsetting, a young gentleman being instantly killed by his side.

In 1834–35, the subject of French spoliations came before congress, in considering which, Mr. Clay rendered valuable services. A treaty had been concluded with France, stipulating for indemnification, the first instalment of which was not promptly paid, whereupon the president, with injudicious precipitancy, recommended the passage of a law authorizing reprisals upon French property, unless at the next session of the French chamber provision should be made for its payment. The tendency of this recommendation was most deleterious upon our commercial interests. The subject was referred to the committee on foreign relations, at the head of which the senate had placed Mr. Clay. On the sixth of January, 1835, he read a lengthy and most able report, which detailed, with great minuteness and perspicuity, the facts connected with the subject of the spoliations, which was received with great applause, and twenty thousand copies printed and circulated through the country, which soon restored commercial confidence. The doctrines of the report were such as commended themselves to every patriotic heart――simple, just, exacting to the last tithe our demands on France, but yet deprecating rashness in obtaining them. The committee did not doubt the power of the United States to enforce payment, but deemed it inexpedient to exercise it, until other means had been exhausted. They coincided with the president in a determination to have the treaty fulfilled, but desired to avoid too great haste. They concluded by recommending the senate to adopt a resolution, declaring it ‘inexpedient to pass, at this time, any law vesting in the president authority for making reprisals upon French property, in the contingency of provision not being made for paying to the United States the indemnity stipulated by the treaty of 1831, during the present session of the French chambers.’

On the fourteenth of January, in accordance with previous arrangement, Mr. Clay called for the consideration of the report and its accompanying resolution. It being expected that he would address the senate, the members of the house generally left their seats to listen to him, nor were they disappointed; for he spoke nearly an hour, in strains of eloquence that thrilled the hearts of all who listened to him. After being slightly modified, the resolution passed the senate unanimously, and thus, mainly through the efforts of Mr. Clay, a hostile collision with France was averted, and that pacific intercourse which had previously existed between her and the United States reëstablished, and the consummation of the treaty greatly accelerated. As he justly deserved, his country awarded him sincere praise, for his magnanimous course in achieving this.

Soon after the president’s recommendation of reprisals, the French minister was recalled from Washington, and passports presented to our minister at Paris, by the order of Louis Philippe, the French king, in anticipation of a rupture with the United States. In consequence of these proceedings, Mr. Clay, near the close of the session, made a short report from the committee on foreign relations, recommending that the senate adhere to the resolution previously adopted, await the result of another appeal to the French chambers, and hold itself in readiness for whatever exigency might arise. The advice of the committee was adopted by the senate, and thus terminated the consideration of the subject.

On the fourth of February, 1835, an occasion occurred favorable for the exercise of Mr. Clay’s philanthropic feelings, which he promptly embraced. He had received a memorial from certain Indians of the Cherokee tribe, setting forth their condition, grievances, wants, and rigid and cruel policy pursued towards them by the state of Georgia. A portion desired to remain where they were, and a portion to remove beyond the Mississippi. In presenting their petition, Mr. Clay made remarks which came burning with pathos and eloquence from his inmost soul. He manifested the deepest feeling, as he dwelt upon the story of their wrongs, and their downtrodden state. This he represented as worse than that of the slave, for his master cared for and fed him, ‘but what human being,’ said he, ‘is there, to care for the unfortunate Indian?’ Mr. Clay alluded to the numerous solemn treaties, in which the United States pledged their faith towards the red man, to allow him the unmolested occupancy of his hunting grounds. He was much affected, and many of his audience were bathed in tears. Mr. Clay’s sympathetic feelings flowed forth unbidden, and unchecked by selfish considerations, whenever he beheld suffering humanity, and no class have participated more largely in them than the poor, friendless aborigines. He invariably advocated their claims, and a full redress of their grievances. The presence of a Cherokee chief and a female of the tribe greatly enhanced the interest of the occasion, who seemed to hang upon the lips of the benevolent speaker, and drink in every word as though it had been water to their thirsty souls. In conclusion, Mr. Clay submitted a resolution, directing the committee on the judiciary to inquire into the expediency of making further provision, by law, to enable Indian tribes to whom lands have been secured by treaty, to defend and maintain their rights to such lands, in the courts of the United States. Also, a resolution directing the committee on Indian affairs, to inquire into the expediency of setting apart a district of country west of the Mississippi, for such of the Cherokee nations as were disposed to emigrate, and for securing in perpetuity their peaceful enjoyment thereof, to themselves and their descendants.

A bill was reported to the senate, abating executive patronage, which Mr. Clay supported by a speech, on the eighteenth of February, 1835, embodying an accurate account of the multifarious evils resulting from the selfish and arbitrary course pursued by the chief magistrate――evils which no lover of his country and her liberties could contemplate but with apprehensions of terror. He also spoke in favor of making an appropriation for continuing the construction of the Cumberland road, and against surrendering it to the control of the states through which it passed.

During the session of 1835–6, a further consideration of the subject of French spoliations was had. Mr. Clay, being again placed at the head of the committee on foreign relations, on the eleventh of January, 1836, introduced a resolution to the senate, calling on the president for information relative to our affairs with France. Three weeks subsequently, he introduced another, calling for the _exposé_ which accompanied the French bill of indemnity, for certain notes which passed between the Duc de Broglie, and our _chargé_, Mr. Barton, and those between our minister, Mr. Livingston, and the French minister of foreign affairs. With some modifications, these resolutions were adopted.

On the announcement of the president, February eighth, 1836, that Great Britain had offered her mediation between the United States and France, Mr. Clay took occasion to remark that he could not withhold the expressions of his congratulations to the senate, for the agency it had in producing the happy termination of our difficulties with France. If the senate had not, by its unanimous vote of last September, declared that it was inexpedient to adopt any legislative action upon the subject of our relations with France, if it had yielded to the recommendations of the executive, in ordering reprisals against that power, it could not be doubted but that war would have existed, at that moment, in its most serious state.

On the fourteenth of April, Mr. Clay’s land bill was taken up in the senate, and discussed at length, for several days, during which he ably and faithfully defended it. On the twenty-sixth, he made a speech in its behalf, which was not far behind his most brilliant efforts. In reference to it says the National Intelligencer, ‘we thought, after hearing the able and comprehensive arguments of Messrs. Ewing, Southard, and White, in favor of this beneficent measure, that the subject was exhausted; that, at any rate, but little new could be urged in its defence. Mr. Clay, however, in one of the most luminous and forcible arguments which we have ever heard him deliver, placed the subject in new lights, and gave to it new claims to favor. The whole train of his reasoning appeared to us a series of demonstrations.’

By a vote of twenty-five to twenty, it passed the senate, May fourth, 1836, in the same form, substantially, as that vetoed by general Jackson; but in the house his influence was too powerful to admit of its passage there at that time.

On the right of petition, Mr. Clay stated his views, which supported the belief that the servants of the people ought to examine, deliberate, and decide, either to grant or refuse the prayer of a petition, giving the reasons for such decision; and that such was the best mode of putting an end to the agitation of the public on the subject. The right of congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, he thought, existed, but seemed inclined to question the expediency of exercising it, under the circumstances then existing.

The condition of the deposit banks was made the subject of a report by the secretary of the treasury, on the seventeenth of March, 1836, when Mr. Clay demonstrated the insecurity of the public monies in their keeping, and foretold, with astonishing accuracy, the crisis which in 1837 occurred.

The recognition of the independence of Texas, was effected by the exertions of Mr. Clay, on ascertaining that it had a civil government in successful operation. Up to the close of the session, (July fourth, 1836,) Mr. Clay’s vigilance and activity in the service of his country did not abate in the least. The fortification bill, reduction of duties on articles not coming in collision with the manufacturing interests, and various other questions of national importance, engaged his attention.

On returning to Kentucky, a dinner was tendered him, by the citizens of Woodford county, at which he reviewed, in a masterly manner, the doings of the administration, and expressed his determination to withdraw from public life, and even went so far as to declare his wish that the state would look for some other individual to fill the station then occupied by him, but which would soon be vacant by the expiration of his term.

While surveying his cattle, in the autumn of 1836, he narrowly escaped death, by a furious bull, which rushed towards him, plunging his horns into the horse on which he was seated, killing him suddenly, and throwing Mr. Clay several feet. He, however, escaped with a slight contusion.

In 1836, Mr. Clay accepted the appointment of president of the American Colonization Society, in the place of ex-president Madison, deceased.

Being strongly importuned from a variety of sources, Mr. Clay consented to become a candidate for the senatorship again, and was reëlected. Immediately after the convening of congress, he once more brought forward his land bill. After being read twice, it was referred to the appropriate committee, at the head of which was Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, who said, that he had been instructed by it to move the indefinite postponement of the bill, whenever it should come up for consideration. A few days after, he introduced his own bill, proposing to restrict the sales of lands to actual settlers. On the ninth of February, 1837, Mr. Calhoun introduced _his_ bill, which ostensibly sold, but in reality gave to the new states, the public lands. This plan was vigorously denounced by Mr. Clay, who expressed himself opposed to all schemes of disposing of the national domain which would deprive the old states of their rightful interest in it, and that, while he had strength to stand and speak, he would employ it in protesting against their adoption. He implored the senate not to appeal to the cupidity of the new states from party inducements, and exhorted a faithful adhesion to equity and justice in apportioning the public lands.

On a bill, originating with the committee on finance, which contained provisions conflicting with the compromise act, Mr. Clay spoke at considerable length; also on a resolution introduced by Mr. Ewing, rescinding the specie circular, which required all payments for public lands to be in specie.

On the sixteenth of January, Mr. Clay discussed the question of _expunging_ from the records of the senate, for 1834, his resolution censuring general Jackson for removing the deposits unconstitutionally; Mr. Benton having introduced a resolution requiring its erasure. In his speech, Mr. Clay so blended indignant invective, sarcasm, scorn, humor, and argument, as to make it one of the most withering rebukes ever administered. ‘What patriotic purpose,’ said he, ‘is to be accomplished by this expunging resolution? Can you make that not to be, which has been? Can you eradicate from memory, and from history, the fact, that in March, 1834, a majority of the senate of the United States passed the resolution which excites your enmity? Is it your vain and wicked object to arrogate to yourself that power of annihilating the past, which has been denied to omnipotence itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands into our hearts, and to pluck out the deeply rooted convictions which are there? Or is it your design merely to stigmatize us? You cannot stigmatize us.

‘Ne’er yet did base dishonor blur our name.’

‘Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude, and bearing aloft the shield of the constitution of our country, your puny efforts are impotent, and we defy all your power. Put the majority of 1834 in one scale, and that by which this expunging resolution is to be carried in the other, and let truth and justice in heaven above and on earth below, and liberty and patriotism, decide the preponderance.

‘What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this expunging resolution? Is it to appease the wrath, and heal the wounded pride, of the chief magistrate? If he be really the hero that his friends represent him, he must despise all mean condescension, all grovelling sycophancy, all self-degradation and self-abasement. He would reject with scorn and contempt, as unworthy of his fame, your _black scratches_ and _your baby lines_, in the fair records of his country.’

The expunging resolution, however, passed, and thus the just resolution of Mr. Clay was stricken from the national records, but not from the _record of memory_; there will it live until her functions cease, the memento of a patriotic purpose to place the signet of a nation’s displeasure upon as unprincipled an act as any ruler of that nation ever perpetrated.

In the autumn of 1836, the presidential election took place, which resulted in elevating Mr. Van Buren to the chair of the chief magistracy, by one hundred and seventy of the two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes. At the time he entered upon the discharge of his official duties, the situation of the country was deplorable in the extreme. She was reaping the bitter fruits, which Mr. Clay had again and again predicted general Jackson would bring back from his experimental crusade and thrust down her throat. From Maine to Florida, her population were eating them, and gnashing their teeth with rage, when they contrasted their present lamentable condition, with what it was during the halcyon and equitable administration of Mr. Adams. Then, there was every thing to admire, and nothing to deprecate; now, there was nothing to admire and every thing to deprecate; then, the most devoted patriot, as he cast his eyes over his country, discovered abundant evidence of health, and the existence of few evils, and those medicable, or, if not, easily patible; now, wounds and bruises and putrescence, disfiguring it, he beheld at every stage of his survey, and ills of untold magnitude and enormity, for which no remedy could be devised. But there is no necessity for specification; it is sufficient to say, that when general Jackson took up the reins of government, he found the country prosperous and happy, and that when he laid them down, its _condition was just the reverse_. For every good which he found, its opposite evil had been substituted; for solvency, insolvency; for confidence, suspicion; for credit, discredit; for a sound and safe currency, one, if possible, worse than unsound and unsafe; for honesty, dishonesty; for purity, corruption; for justice, injustice; for frankness and candor, intrigue and duplicity; for order, disorder; for quiet, turmoil; for fidelity, infidelity; for enterprise, indolence; for wealth, poverty; for patient industry, wild speculation; for republican simplicity, haughty aristocracy; for wisdom, folly; for health, disease; for happiness, misery; for hope, despair; and for life, death. This substitution, Mr. Clay clearly foresaw would be made; he predicted it, and forewarned the country of it. Such was the condition of the country, when Mr. Van Buren attempted to ‘walk in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor.’ Soon after his inauguration, he issued his proclamation, ordering an extra session of congress, to commence the first Monday in September. Pursuant to this, congress met to prescribe some mode of relief. In his message, the president recommended the _sub-treasury system_ for the deposit, transfer, and disbursement of the public revenue. This was the engrossing topic of the session, and which Mr. Clay combated and denounced unsparingly. He detected in it, and lucidly exposed, _that_ which was calculated, not only to perpetuate the excesses and abuses under which the land was then groaning, but to superinduce fresh ones. He saw in it the grand link of that chain, destined to bind the resources and patronage of the government to the _car of party_, which for eight long years Mr. Van Buren’s predecessor had been so busily engaged in forging. Mr. Clay’s speech on this occasion is an inimitable specimen of close argumentative reasoning. After exposing the defects, absurdities, and danger of the sub-treasury scheme, he declared his decided conviction, that the only practicable measure for restoring a sound, safe, and uniform currency to the United States, was a properly organized United States bank, but that it would be unwise to propose such an institution, until the conviction of its necessity should become permanently impressed upon the minds of the people. The sub-treasury bill passed the senate by a vote of twenty-five to twenty, but in the house was laid on the table by a vote of one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seven.

Petitions for the erection of a national bank poured into congress incessantly, quite too fast to please the administration, which began to tremble for the safety of its darling projects. Mr. Wright, from the committee on finance, moved that the prayer of the memorialists ought not to be granted. Mr. Clay said, if the honorable senator persisted in his opposition, he should feel constrained to move to strike out all after _resolved_, and substitute ‘that it will be expedient to establish a bank of the United States, whenever it shall be manifest, that a clear majority of the people of the United States desire such an institution.’

On the nineteenth of February, 1838, Mr. Clay once more addressed the senate in opposition to the sub-treasury plan, in one of the longest speeches he ever delivered, and made a complete _exposé_ of the ulterior intentions of the present and previous administrations, which were, to subvert the whole banking system, and build upon its ruins a mighty government, treasury bank, to be mainly organized and controlled by the executive department.

During the session, Mr. Clay, in presenting a petition for the establishment of a national bank, communicated some of his own views in relation to such an institution. He desired, first, that its capital should not be enormously large――about fifty millions of dollars――and its stock divided between the general government, the states, and individual subscribers; secondly, that in its organization, reference should be had to public and private control, public and private interests, and to the exclusion of foreign influence; thirdly, that a portion of its capital should be set apart, and placed in permanent security, adequate to meet any contingency that might arise in connection with the issues of the bank; fourthly, perfect publicity in relation to all its affairs; fifthly, that its dividends should be limited to a certain per centum; sixthly, a prospective reduction in the rate of interest to six, and, if practicable, to five per centum; seventhly, that there should be a restriction upon the premium demanded upon post notes and checks used for remittance, to about one and a half per centum as the maximum between the most remote points of the union, thereby regulating domestic exchanges; eighthly, that effective provisions should be made against executive interference with the bank, and of it with the elections of the country. Such a public banking institution Mr. Clay advocated, from the conviction that it would perform every thing requisite in furnishing a good currency. The question of its constitutionality, he considered as satisfactorily settled by the fact, that the people during forty years had cherished the bank, that it had been approved by Washington, the father of his country, by Madison, the father of the constitution, and by Marshall, the father of the judiciary.