The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1852-07-17
HENRY CLAY.


ment of the death of the Great Commoner
having passed, the people are now begin
ming to feel the extent of their bereave-
ment, and to devise formal means to per-
petuate his memory. Intrinsically, his
worth needs no such outward show. The
works of man decay and melt before the
ravages of the "tooth of time" No
" storied urn or monumental bust" is
needed to tell the world that Cicero and
Brutus lived or that Demosthenes sway
ed the Athenian thousands by the power
of his eloquence or that Leonidas and
Themistocles beat back the Persian hordes
at Thermopyl@ and Marathon. Yet man
so must show his veneration for the mem
DRY of the great and good who have passed
from among us, and why gainsay the graf
ification of the hollow pleasure?
The remains of the lamented Statesman
have been deposited in the soil of his own
beloved Kentucky. On Monday, the
twelfth day of July, the State that had SO
long delighted to do him honor-the State
whose fair name and fame he had SO many
years lived to build up and protect-stood
by his bier at her ancient capital, and
saw all that was mortal consigned to the
silent chambers of the grave. Solemn
yet noble spectacle! The men of an
age that has passed-the fathers of the
"dark and bloody ground men who in
their youth had grasped the hand of
Boone, and Scott, and Shelby-and in their
'nanhood's prime had stood side by side
with the gallant Harry of the West" in
elevating their beloved Commonwealth
high and glorious renown, and the pros
perity OF their common country; the mid
die aged, who are now bearing with such
honor the burthen of the States require
ments; the youth of that chivalric land
the noble sons of the " Hunters of Ken
lucky ever ready at their country's
call to crowd the road to her battle-felds
as guests to wedding feast and last,
though not least, the honored mothers of
those sons, and their fair daughters-wor-
thy companions of race of noble men and
giants all there to moisten with
their tears the inanimatc clods heaped up
on the coffin Of Departed Greatness. All
who know Kentucky, dknow how she
loved Henry Clay, can picture to their i'm
agination the impressive scene. Here, up
on the theatre of his first great efforts in be-
half of freedom and the inalienable rights
of his countrymen, that WORKOUT frame
was laid away to its final rest, watered by
the gushing fountains of hearts as great
and noble as God ever implanted in the
breast Of man--mourned by people among
whom it were the highest ambition of all
true men who know them, to have their
love as he had it in life, and their deep.
abiding sorrow in death.
Among the numerous prominent politi-
cal opponents of Henry Clay is one who
never joined the blood hounds of his par
ty in their work of defamation. That mar
is Lewis Cass-now ga head and shout.
ders above them all "-the leader of the
Democracy, although at present thrust
aside to give place to metal more pliable
Such man the country loves and wher
he comes to die, he can lie down as die
his great contemporary, with the nation
around him as mourners. When such q
man rises to speak in the Senate upon the
solemn announcement that one who had 50
long stood in that chamber the champion
of all that is good, and honorable, and pa
triotic, had ceased to liye-we say when
such man as this rises on so mournful
an occasion, we can all listen to him
for his tongue was never blistered with
uttering the lies about "bagain and sale, -
and the "murder of Cilley." He is not
Of the hypocrites who "garnish the sepul-
chres of the righteous" and say, elf we
had lived in the days of our fathers we
would not have been partakers with them
in the blood of the prophets" With
clean hands and a conscientious heart, the
great Senator from Michigan could rise in
his place on that solemn day and speak
as follows. Let us all read the testimony
Of the living patriot to the worth of the
one who has gone only short time, in
the natural course of mortal affairs, be-
fore him:
MT. Cass said-Mr. President, again has
the impressive warning come to Sin
the midst of life we are in DEATH The
ordinary labors of this life are suspended.
and It's contentious hushed before the
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