The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1870-06-09
From the Cincinnati Enquirer May Il.
THE SON OF HENRY CLAY

| Yesterday morning our special telegrams
announced the end of a weary life, in stating
that Theodore, eldest son of Henry Clay, had
died in the Lexington Lunatic Asylum after
a long confinement. The record of his blast
ed life in brief is this AT thirty years of age
Theodore Clay was a promising lawyer. He
was the image and the hope of the statesman
whose fame was on every tongue. 1t is true
that there were whispers of wild living, and
of Indifferent morals, that somewhat tinged
his fair repute, and even darkened his future
prospects. Still it was hoped that these were
but the result of youth, and would be cast
aside when circumstances called upon the
matured man to assert himself and make his
talent felt in the community.
Ii was at this turning-point in his life that
Theodore Clay began to pursue, with an un-
wearied perseverance that caused his friends
great uneaniness, Il young lady of Lexington
whom he had loved hopelessly. The object
of his attachment who is at the present mo-
ment one of the bri rightest ornaments of Ken
lucky society, repulsed, firmly but kindly,
every attention offered by the infatuated
young man, after his meaning had become
manifest 1t was useless; he would not be
refused and followed her in the streets by
day, and wandered in the neighborhood of
her home by night, in an annoying manner,
until at last it became evident that he "was
not all there" to use the soft phrase by
which Il kindly peasantry express insanity.
Subsequent violent demonstrations tended to
confirm the impression, it being even related
that he went to the house of Mir and de-
manded his daughter at the pistols point, un-
til at last the Wretched truth could no longer
be ignored, and confinement in an asylum be-
came a necessity. This was accordingly
,ol; f,t Il
ed for his support at that time, and leaving
was secured to Theodore for life.
That life, after thirty weight years of impris-
onment, in what in the earlier days Of his
confinement he was wont to call "a good
boarding house, but having some of the big
gest fools he ever saw as boarders," has just
closed, For nearly thirty years he was one
of the most noted of the inmates, not only
his proud descent, but his graceful manners
and flow of conversation, rendering him an
object of interest to all visitors. He labored
the under hallucination that he was George
Washn gton, and was fond of assuming the
traditional attitude of the Father of his Coun-
Try AT the occasional balls given to the in
mates (averaging some 500 in number) he
was always cxquisitely dressed in the style
of his day, and was the beau par ercellence,
During all these long years, despite his gen.
cral gentleness and cheerfulness of manner,
he was restless and discontented, and requir-
ed close watching, it never, in fact, having
been considered prudent to allow him to 60
out into the grounds without attendants.
About the year 1860 his condition began to
grow worse, and he soon after became de-
mented, continuing in hopeless idiocy until a
few days since, when death, greater healer
than time placed him again upon an equali-
| ty with the peers of his early manhood who
had gone before him to the God that created
him and did with him according to his in
scrutable will And so ends as sad a story
as the truth of history ever commanded to be
written.
Two sons of Henry Clay yet survive him,
T. H. Clay, ExMnister to Honduras, now
residing on his place, Mansfield" near Lex
ington, and John NJ. Clay, the raiser of Ken
lucky, and one of the greatest turfmen living.