Daily American telegraph., 1852-07-01

DEATH OF HENRY CLAY.
Fifty years ago. HENRY Clay, of Virginia,
already adopted by Kentucky, then as youth
full as himself, entered the service of his coun-
try, Representative in the unpretending Legis-
lature of that rising State; and having thence
forward pursued, with ardor and constancy,
the gradual paths of an aspiring change
through Halls of Congress, Foreign Courts and
Executive Councils, he has now, with the
cheerfulness of Patriot and the serenity Of a
Christian, fitly closed his long and arduous ca
reer, here in the Senate, in the full presence Of
the Republic, looking down upon the scene
with anxiety and alarm, not merely a Senator
like one of us who yet remain in the Senate
House, but filing that character which, though
it had no authority of law and was assigned
without suffrage, Augustus Caesar nevertheless
declared was above the title of Emperor, Pri-
mus inter Wustres-the Prince of the Senate
Generals are tried, Mr. President, by exam
ining the campaigns they have lost or won, and
statesmen by reviewing the transactions in
which they have been engaged, Hamilton
would have been unknown to us, had there
been no Constitution to be created; as Brutus
would have died in obscurity, had there been
no Caesar to be slain.
Colonization, Revolution, and Organization
three great acts in the drama of our National
Progress-had already passed when the West
ern Patriot appeared on the public stage He
entered in that next division of the ma aestic
scenes which was marked by an inevitable re-
action of political forces, a wild strife of fac
tions and runous embarrassments in our
Foreign Relations This transition stage is
always more perilous than any other in the
career of Nations and especially in the career
of Republics. 1t proved fatal to the Common
wealth in England. Scarcely any of the Span
ish American States has yet emerged from it
and it has more than once been sadly signal
lied by the ruin of the Republican cause in
| France.
The continuous Administrations Of Wash
ington and John Adams had closed under
cloud which had thrown broad, dark shadow
over the Future; the nation was deeply in
debted at home and abroad, and its credit was
prostrate. The Revolutionary factions had
given place to two inveterate parties, divided
by gulf which had been worn by the conflict
IN which the Constitution was adopted, and
made broader and deeper by war Of preiu-
dices concerning the merits of the belligerents
IN the great European struggle that then con-
vulsed the civilized world Our extraordinary
political system was little more than an inge-
NOUS theory, not yet practically established
| The Union of the States was as yet only one of
compact; for the political, social, and CONNER
cial necessities to which it was SO marvelously
adapted, and which, clustering thickly upon
it. now render it indissoluble, had not then
been broadly disclosed, nor had the habits
of acquiescence and the sentiments of loyalty,
always slow of growth, fully ripened. The
bark that had gone to sea. thus unfurnished
and untried, seemed quite certain to founder
by reason of its own inherent frailty even if
it should escape unharmed in the great conflict
of Nations which acknowledged no claims of
justice and tolerated no pretensions of neutral
ity. Moreover, the territory possessed by the
nation was inadequate to commercial exi-
gencies and indispensable social expansion;
and yet no provision had been made for en-
largement nor for extending the political sys.
tenn over distant regions inhabited or other.
wise, which must inevitably be acquired Nor
could any such acquisition be made without
disturbing the carefully-adjuste balance of
powers among the members of the Confeder-
acy.
These difficulties, Mr.. President although
they grew less with time and by slow degrees
continued throughoutthe whole life Of the states
man whose obsequies we are celebrating BE
it known, then and am sure that history will
confirm the instruction, that Conservatism was
the interest of the nation, and the responsible
ity of its Rulers, during the period in which
he fourished He was ardent, bold, generous,
and even ambitious; and yet with n profound
conviction Of the true exigencies Of the coun-
try, like Alexander Hamilton, he disciplined
himself and trained restless nation, that
knew only selfcontrol to the rigorous practice
of that often humiiating conservatism which
its welfare and security in that peculiar crisis
so imperiously demanded
1t could not have happened, sir, to any citi-
zen to have acted alone nor even to have acted
always the most conspicuous part in trying
| period so long protracted. HENRY CLAY there
| fore shared the responsibilities of Government
with not only his proper contemporaries but
also survivors Of the Revolution. well as also
many who will now succeed himself Delica-
cy forbids my naming those who retain their
places here but we may without impropriety
recall among his compeers a Senator of vast
resources and .inhexible resolve, who has re-
Gently withdrawn from this Chamber but
trust not altogether from public life, Mr. BEN
TON and another, who, surprising all his con-
temporaries within his country, and even
throughout the world in the proper eloquence
Of the Forum, now in autumnal years for a
second time digniies and adorns the highest
seat in the Executive Council, Mr.. WEBSTER !
Passing by these eminent and noble men, the
shades of Calhoun John Quincy Adams, Jack
son, Monroe and Jefferson, rise up before us
statesmen whose living and local fame has
ripened already into historical and worldwide
renown.
Among geniuses 50 lofty as these, HENRY
CLAY bore a part in regulating the consttu-
tional freedom Of political debate, establishing
that long-contested and most important line
which divides the sovereignty Of the several
States from that of the States contederated
asserting the right Of Neutrality and vindi-
eating it by war against Great Britain, when
that lust but extreme measure became neces-