Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-07-03
CONGRESS.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1850.
IN SENATE.

Mr.. UNDERWOOD, of Kentucky, rose and said Mr.
President rise the death Of my colleague
Mr. CLAY He died at his lodgings in the National Hotel
this city, Mt seventeen minutes past eleven o'clock yes
terday morning in the seventysxth year OF his age lie
expired with perfect composure, and without groan OF
struggle.
nent citizens and statesmen and think its greatest
genius. shall detain the Senate by narratng the
transactions of his long and useful e His distinguished
services a statesman nseparaby connected wih
the history Of his country As Representative and Speaker
in the other House of Congress- Senator IN this pody
Secretary of State and Envoy abroad he has IN all
these positions exhibited wisdom and patriotism which
have made deep and lasting impression upon the crate
full hearts of his countrymen His thoughts and his &C
tons have already been published TO the world IN written
biography Congressional debates and reports In the
journals Of the Houses and in the pages OF
history They have been commemorated by monuments
erected the wayside. They have been engraven on
medals Of gold. Their memory viii survive the monu-
ments of marble and the medals of gold for these are
efaced and decay 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
viii pass down from generation to generation as portion
OF national Inheritance incapable of annhilaon SO
long as genius has an admirer or liberty friend
Mr. President the character Of Henry Clay was formed
and developed by the influence Of our free institutions
His physical menta and moral faculties were the gift OF
God That they greatly superior to the faculties
allotted to most cannot be questioned They were
not cultivated improved, and directed by liberal or col
legiate education His respectable parents were not
dren at college Moreover his father died when he was
. boy. At early period, Mr. Clay was thrown upon
his own resources, without patrimony he grew up IN
clerks Office in Richmond, Virginia He there studied
law He emgrated from his native State and settled In
Lexington Kentucky where he commenced the practice
| Of his profession before he of full age.
The road to wealth. honor, and fame was open be-
fore him. Under constitutions and laws ne might
freely employ his great faculties unobsructed by legal
impediment and unaided by exclusive privileges Very
Mr. Clay made deep and favorable impression upon
the people among whom he began his career The excel
ence of his natural faculties displayed Neces
sity stimulated him in their cultivation His assduity
skill, and fidelity in professional engagements secured
public confidence He elected member Of the Legis
Of Kentucky in which body he served several ses
sons prior to 1906 In that year he elevated to
seat in the Senate Of the United States.
At the bar and in the General Assembly of Kentucky
Mr. Clay first manifested those high qualities apubc
speaker which have secured to him much popular ap-
plause and admiration. His physical and mental organ
zation eminenty qualified him to become great and i'm
pressive crater His person was tall slender and com
mandng his temperament ardent fearless and full Of
hope his countenance clear, expressive and variable
indicating the emotion which predominaed at the moment
with exact smiude; his voice. cultivated andmoduated
in harmony with the sentiment he desired to express fell
upon the like the melody of enrapturinG music; his
eye beamng with intelligence and flashing with corrusca
tons of genius his gestures and attitudes graceful and
natural These persona. advantages the proposes
Gons of audience before his intellectual powers
began to his hearers; and when his strong CON-
sense his profound reasoning his clear conceptions
of his subject in all its bearings and his striking and
beautiful illustrations united with such personal quail
ties brought to the discussion of any question: his
audience enrapured convinced and led by the
tor, az if enchanted by the Tyre of 0rpheus
No ever blessed by his Creator with faculties
Of higher order of excellence than those given to Mr.
Clay In the quckness of his perceptions and the rap
dty with which his conclusions formed he had
equals and no superior. Hewas eminently endowed with
nice discriminating taste for order, symmetry and
beauty. He detected in n moment every thing out of
O in foOpd.u in mis- own
or the dress of others. He skful judge of the
form and qualities of bis domestic animals which he de-
lighted to raise his farm 1 could give you instances
Of the quckness and minuteness of his keen faculty Of
observation which never overlooked any thing. want
of nsatness and order offensive to him. He was par
tcuar and neat in his handwriting and his apparel
soveny blot negligence Of sort met his condemna
ton while he organized that he attended to, and
arranged little things TO please and crafty his natural
love for neatnes order and beauty his great Intellectual
faculties grasped all the subjects Jurisprudence and po
htcs with facility amounting almost intuition. AS
lawyer, he stood ut the head of his profession As
statesman his stand at the head Of the Republican Wing
party for nearly half century, establishes his title TO
pre-emnence among his ilustrious associates.
Mr. Clay was deeply versed in all the springs Of hu
man action. He had read and studied biography and
history Shortly after left college, had occasion to
call on him in Frankfort where he attending court
and wen remember to have found him with Pluarchs
Lives in his hands No better than he knew how TO-
avail himself Of human motives and all the circumstances
which surrounded subject could present them with
more force and skill to accomplish the object Of argu
ment
Mr. Clay, throughout his public career was Influenced
by the Hottest patriotism Confident in the truth Of his
convictions and the purity Of his purposes he ardent
sometimes impeuous in the pursuit of objects which he
believed essential to the general welfare Those who
stood in his way thrown aside without fear
mony He affected courtiers difference to
opinions which he thought hostile to the best interests Of
his country and hence he may have wounded the vanity
Of those who thought themselves Of consequence II Is
certain whatever the that period Of his life
Mr. Clay might have been referred proof that there
Is truth than fiction in those profound lines Of the
poet
"He who ascends the mountain top shall find
It's oftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses subducs mankind
Must look down on the hate Of those below,
Though far above the Of glory glow.
And far beneath the earth and spread,
Round him are icy recks, and loudly blow
Contending tempests his naked head,
And thus reward the tolls which those SUBMITS led
Csumny and deracton emptied their Walls upon him.
But how glorious the change He outlived malice and
envy lie lived long enough TO prove to the world that
his ambition was no more than holy aspiration TO make
his country the greatest most powerful and best govern
ed on the earth II he desired its highest Office il
because the greater power and influence resulting from
such elevation would enable him do he other
wise could Tor the progress and of his
own countrymen, then Of his whole race His sympohies
empraced all The African slave, the Creole OF Spanish
america the children Of renovated classic Greece-all
amies Oh men, without respect 10 color cline, found,
IN ms expanded bosom and comprehensive intellect,
friend OF their elevation and ameoration Such ambition
ss that is Gods implanted In the human heart for raising
tne down-rodden nations Of the EARTH and fitting them
Tor regeneraed existence in politics. in morals and
| ligion.
Bold and determined Mr. Clay was in all his actions,
ne VAS nevertheless conciliang He did not obstnatey
adhere 70 things impracticable IL he could not
tho