The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent., 1850-08-23
Henry Glay's Speech-The COmpro
mise Bill.

The Washington Union contains full report
of the last great speech of Henry Clay, deliver
ed in favor Of his compromise bill. We have
room only for the conclusion of it.. which is as
follows:
The responsibility OF this great measure pas
ses from the hands ofthe committee and from my
hands. They know, and know, that il is tre-
mendous responsibility. ] hope that you will
meet it with just conception, and true appre-
citation Of its magnitude, and the magnitude OF
consequences which may ensue from your deci-
sion one way or the other. The alternatives,
fear; which the measure presents, are concord
and increased disCord; a serve civil war-orig-
mating in its causes on the lower Rio GraDde,
and terminating possibly; in its consequences
with the upper Rio Grande, in The Santa Fe coun-
try-or the restoration of harmony and fraternal
kindness.
believe from the bottom Of nv soul, that the
measure is the reunion OF the Union. believe
it is the dove of peace, which. taking its ariel
fight from the dome Of the Capitol, carries the
glad tidings of assured peace and restored har-
mony to all the remotest extremties o. this dis
tracted land believe it will be attended with
all these bene6cent effects. And new let US
discard all resentment. all passions, ali petty
iealousies, all personal desires, all love o.
place, all longing after the gilded crumbs
which fall from the table of power. Let us for
get popular fears, from whatever quarter they
may spring. Let us 90 TO the limpid fountain
Of unadulIerated patriotism, and, performing a
solemn lustration, return divested Of all selfish,
sinister and sordid impurities and think alone Of
our God, our country ,sonr consciences, and our
glorious Union-that Union without which we
shall be torn into hostile fragments, and sooner
or - become the victims of military despotism
or foreign domination.
Mr.. President, what is an individual man? An
atom, almost invisible without magnifyng glass
"a mere speck upon the immense surface Of
the uhiperse-not a second in time compared to
immeasurabe, never-failing, never-begnning,
and never ending eternity; drop Of water in the
great deep, which evaporates and is borne ofby
the winds, grain Of sand, which is soon gath
cred to the dust from which it sprung. Shall a
being so small, 90 petty, so fleeing, so evAne-
scent, oppose itself to the onward march Of a
great nation, to suhsist for ages and ages to
come-oppose itself to that long line of posterty
which, issuing from our lOins, will endure during
the existence OF the world9 Forbid it, Godl
Let us look at our country and our cause, elevate
ourselves to the dignity Of pure and dsinterested
patriots, wise and enlightened statesmen, and
save our country from all impending dangers.
What if, in the march Of this nation to greatness
and power, we should be buried beneath the
wheels that propel it onward. What are we,
what is any man worth who is not ready and
willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit Of his
country when it is necessary?
Now Mr. President, allow me to make short
appeal to some Senators-to the whole of the
Senate. Here is my friend from Virginia, (Mr
Mason,) of whom have never been without
hopes. | have thought of the revolutionary
blood of George Mason which flows in his veins
--of the blood oil his own father-of his own &C.
complished sather-my friend-my cherished
friend for many years. Can he, knowing, as /
think he must know, the wishes OF the people of
his own State-can he, with the knowledge he
possesses of the public sentiment there, and of
the high obligation cast upon him by his noble
ancestry-can he hazard Virginia's greatest and
most glorious work-that work at least which
she, perhaps more than any other State con-
tributed her moral and political power to erect?
Can he put at hazard this noble Union, with all