New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-07-09
The Memory of MIR. CLAW.

Mr.. Underwood rose and said !: MIR. PRESIDENT, |
rise to announce the death of my colleague,
Mr. Clay. He died at his lodgings in the Ma
tional Hotel of this city, at seventeen minutes
past eleven o'clock yesterday morning. in the
seventy sixth year of his age. He expired with
perfect composure, and without o groan or
struggle.
By his death our country has lost one Of its
most eminent citizens and statesmen; and,
think, its greatest genius. I shall not detain
the Senate by narrating the transactions Of his
long and useful life His distinguished services
as statesman are inseparably connected with
the history of his country. As Representative
and Speaker in the other House of Congress, as
Senator in this body, as Secretary of State, and
as Envoy abroad, he has, in all these positions,
exhibited wisdom and patriotism which have
made a deep and lasting impression upon the
grateful hearts Of his countrymen His thoughts
and his actions have already been published te
the world in written biography; in Congress
sional debates and reports; in the journals Of
the two Houses, and in the pages of American
history. They have been commemorated by
monuments erected on the wayside. They have
been engrayen on medals of gold. Their memory
will survive the monuments of marble and the
medals of gold; for these are efaced and de-
cay by the friction Of ages; but the thoughts
and actions Of my late colleague have become
identified with the Immortality of the human
mind, and will pass down from generation to
generation as a portion of our national inheri-
tance, incapable of annihilation SO long as ge-
MUS has an admirer or liberty friend l.
Mr. President, the character of Henry Clay
was formed and developed by the influence Of
our free institutions. His physical, mental and
moral faculties were the gift Of God. That they
were greatly superior to the faculties allotted to
most men cannot be questioned. They were not
cultivated, improved, and directed by liberal
or collegiate education. His respectable parents
were not wealthy, and had not the means Of
maintaining their children at college. More |
over, his father died when he was boy. At
an early period, Mr.. Clay was thrown upon his
own resources. without patrimony. He grew up
in clerks office in Richmond, Virginia. He
State, and settled in Lexington, Kentucky,
where he commenced the practice of his profess
sion before he was Of full age.
| The road to wealth, to honor, and fame was
open before him. Under our institutions and
laws he might freely employ his great faculties,
unobstructed by legal impedments, and unaid-
ed by exclusive privileges, Very soon Mr. Clay
made deep and favorable impression upon the
people among whom he began his career. The
excellence of his natural faculties was soon dis
played. Necessity stimulated him in their cul-
tivation. His assiduity, skill, and fidelity in
professional engagements secured public conf
dence He was elected member of the Legsla-
ture of Kentucky, in which body he served Sc
veral sessions prior to 1906. In that year he
was elevated to a seat in the Senate of the Uni
ted States,
At the bar and in the General Assembly of Ken
lucky MIR. Clay first manifested those high quail
ties as public speaker which have secured to him
so much popular applause and admiration. His
physical and mental organization eminently
qualified him to become great and impressive
orator. His person was tall slender and COM
manding; his temperament ardent, fearless and
full of hope; his countcnance clear. expressive
and Misunderstanding the emotion which pre-
dominated at the moment with exact similitude.
His voice, cultivated and modulated in harmony
with the sentiment he desired to express, fell up
on the ear like the melody Of enrapturing mu-
sic; his eye, beaming with intelligence, and
flashing with coruseations of genius; hM ges-
lures and attitudes graceful and natural-these
personal advantages won the prepossessions Of
an audience, even before his intellectual powers
began to move his hearers; and when his strong
common sense, his profound reasoning, his clear
conceptions of his subject in all its bearings, and
his striking and beautiful illustrations, united
with, such personal qualities, We're brought to
the discussion of any question, his audience was
enraptured, convinced, and led by the orator
as if enchanted by the Tyre of Orpheus.
No man was ever blessed by his Creator with
faculties Of higher order than those given tt
MI. Sluy. LII tut lulChAeSo VI ulS pclCepllouS
and the rapidity with which his conclusions
were formed. he had few equals and no superior
He was eminently endowed with a nice discrimi
mating taste for order, symmetry and beauty
He detected in a moment everything out ofplac
or deficient in his room, upon his farm, in hi
own or the dress of others He was u skillfu
judge of the form and qualities of the domestic
animals, which he delighted to raise on his farm
5 ] could give you instances of the quickness ant
IF Eaon cn1 1tu IF obSnrv vatio on
which never overlooked anything A want Q
r neatness and order was offensive to him. ii
n was particular and neat in his handwriting an
n his apparel A sloyenly blot, or negligence c
- any sort, met his condemnation. While he wa
o so organized that he attended to and arrange
ID little things to please and crafty his nature
"a love for neatness, order and beauty, his grea
! intellectual faculties grasped all the subjects
jurisprudence and politics with facilit
!, amounting almost to intuition. AS q lawyer
II II he stood at the head of his profession. As
ct statesman, his stand at the head of the republ
Of can whg party for nearly half century, estat
til fishes his title to preeminence among his illus
trious associates
: Mr.. Clay was deeply versed in all the spring
he Of human action He had read and studied b
NJ ography and history Shortly after | left col
A. A. lege, Ihad occasion to call on him in Franktor
st. where he was attending court, and well | re
member to have found him with Plutarch
" Lives in his hands. No one better than he kne
d. ID. how to avail himself Of human motives, and
L the circumstances which surrounded subject
l.; OF could present them with more force and ski
to accomplish the object OF argument.
N Mr. Clay, throughout his public career, WI
i. influenced by the loftiest patriotism. Conildel
]. in the truth of his convictions and the purity
X X his purposes, he was ardent sometimes impetr
~ GUS, in the pursuit of objects which he believe
T. essential to the general welfare Those WI
" stood in his way were thrown aside without fes
N or ceremony He never affected u courtier's d
Y ference TO men or opinions which he thought ho
J; tile to the best interests Of his country; an
tor hence he may have wounded the vanity Of tho
10 who thought themselves Of consequence. 1t
certain, whatever the cause, that at one perit
of his life Mr.. Clay might have been referred
". as proof that there is more truth than hctlon
=. =. those profound lines Of the poet
: ale who ascends the mountain top shall find
Its lottiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow
&, He who surpasses subdues mankind
Must look down on the hate of those below.
II Though far above the sun of glory glow,
,ls And far beneath the earth and ocean spread
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
/. Contendng tempests on his naked head,
= And thus reward the tolls which to those submits le
il.
Calumny and detraction emptied their vi
;. upon him But how glorious the change!
: outlived malice and envy. He lived long enou
of to prove to the world that his ambition was
y