New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-04-21
4 4 OFFICIAL JOURNAL qi7
WEDNESDAY, MORNING. sApRIL IN. ls5:
~ For sherifT's, Constabls's, and Public Auc-
tioneers Sales see Third Page. Il 4 spis
Henry Clay's Birth-nay.

brated ii Network The national banner
floated from 4 hundred stats; and numerous
/, and enthusiastic company, some six hundred,
joiued athe g Clay Festival Association = in
public dinner Hon. Jas. G. Jones, Of Tennes-
sees was tie chief orator Of the occasion. Hon.
Joseph =: White presided, The celebration was
spirited and full Of feeling. The consciousness
that the life, the opening Of which was thus
brilliantly celebrated, was rapidly drawing to
q close. that the great statesman had ceased to
labor, and calmly after life of struggle, of
triumph and defeat, awaited the final summons,
colored the occasion with a melancholy gran
'deur. 9ss49 g,'
N 1t was, indeed, . striking incident. Faithful
to the last, the most gallant and devoted Of fol-
lowers gathered. as itwere, around the death
bed Of their great political chieftain, gave
cheers for the glorious past, and solemn pledge
that they would carry 6 the heart of the Doug
las the soul of Harry Clay, into future civic
contests. There is something far above the
common earnestness, truthfulness and enthu-
siasm Of politics, in this unselfsh fealty, so
eagerly renewed, to the dying leader, whose
arm is weak now to smite, whose voice is dull
and sepulchral in the shadows of approaching
fate, whose eye is dimmed, and whose power to
reward is perishing away with departing life.
Ever guard Of honor to their beloved chief
! tain, the Clay wings thus gather around him in
the last hours Of existence. He can neither
punish nor reward. He can but murm,lr
4 thanks, and it may be that the last cheers of
4 his devoted adherents will be yet ringing upon
his dulled senses, when the summons will come,
and great void be made in the throng Of
American statesmen a.. ...t.4,,o
Such an incident is rare in political history,
and it has a beauty and nobleness peculiarly its
own 1t shows how honest the faith, how un-
selfish the service, how devoted the enthusiasm
Itredeems politics from the cynic's sneering in
situation, Of utter and unredeemed hypocrisy
and vindicates those who have so calamity bat
tied with Henry Clay for certain principles from
the general charge Of mere form and partisan
trickery. With the death of Henry Clay much
sof the strength Of the whig party must be par
I alyzed and wither away, to regain vitality only
in the progress Of time; and singularly truth
full is the sentiment which offers to the dying
man the vindication of his living truth, weak
ened, but not perishing in his death. .'a
4 III his touchingly beautiful letter to the Asso-
citation, Mr.. Clay says that he never had antici-
4 pated that his birthday would be celebrated as
: a regular festiyal-an honor which he deems
due, and due only, to Washington. Uncon-
sciously, he suggests the full force of the com
pliment paid him by his Jealous and untiring
friends. He has scarcely yet passed into his
{ tory, and almost involuntarily Americans hasten
forward To enrol him high up on the calendar
Of American memories. Right or wrong in
policy, he has ever been true man, national
statesman, a moral martyr to his honesty Of
convictions. He is recognized model of the
courtliest gentleman, the frmest patriot. the
most ardent champion and the most unshrinking
vindicator in the land. In the renewed cele-
brations Of his natal day as the statues Of pagan
divinities were solemnly brought forth and gar
landed on festivals, shall he, in the long series
of coming years. be thus brought forth as a
memory to be loved, admired and copied by the
, American people he SO well served. "aE