The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-06-03
NUMBER %.
4 SAD STORY.
The Death Of the Eldest Son of Henry Clay
Thirty Eight Years of Hopeless In
sanity-A Mad Man through Lave.
Soon tlle cinelnnatI InquIrer. NIay .thI

from the Cincinnati Enquirer. May eth
Outside of Fayette county, where the
prophet was in high but not in blame
less repute, being lin his own country
the name of Clay has ever been a sacred
one i'll Kentucky, and to name him is TO
quote lovingly-"\Yherever freedom
found votary, that votary met in him
champion When Greece, the classic
land of Greece, the fountain of refine
ment, the birthplace of eloquence and
liberty and of poetry; when Greece
awOke from her long slumber of ages
and beat back the faded crescent to lis
native East; when Macedon recalled 10
mind the feats of her conquering boy,
and the Spartan struck in for the land
that bred him, then the voice of Clay
rolled over the waters of the blue At
lantic as greeting from the New World
TO the Old. But hushed is that voice
whose every tone is music" and so on
till the declaimer wearied. Such being
the esteem in which the Sage of Ash
land was held in the hearts OF his coun-
trymen, the people of his common
wealth have been slow TO speak 10
strangers of the skeleton in his house
hold, though in the homes of the State
the sad story has been household word.
Yesterday morning our special tele-
grams announced the end of weary
life, i'll stating that Theodore, eldest son
of Henry Clay, had died in the licking
ton Lunatic Asylum, after long con-
finement. The record of his blasted
life is briefly thus:
At thirty years of age Theodore CLAY
was prominent lawyer. He was the
image and the hope of the statesman
whose name was on every tongue. 1t
is true that there were whispers of wild
Suin of ;,,l l.
somewhat tinged the fair repute, and
even darkened the future prospects of
this scion of a noble house. Still il 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 tai
ent felt in the community. 1t was at
this turning point i'll life that Theodore
Clay began to pursue, with an unwea-
ried perseverance that caused his father
great uneasiness, a young lady whom he
had long loved hopelessly. The object
of his attachment, who is at the present
moment one of the brightest ornaments
of Kentucky society, repulsed, firmly
but kindly, every attention offered by
the infatuated young man, after his
meaning had become manifest. 1t was
of no use, he would not be refused, and
followed his fair fate to the streets by
day and wandered in the neighborhood
of her home by night, i'll an annoying
manner, until at last it became evident
that she was not all there to use the
soft phrase by which kindly peasantry
express insanity. Subsequent violent
demonstrations tended to confirm the
impression, it being even related that he
went to the house of NJ - and de-
manded his daughter AT the pistols
point, until at last the wretched truth
could no longer be ignored, and confine-
ment i'll the asylum became a stern ne
cessity. This was accordingly done (in
1882, we believe), his father providing
for his support at that time, and leaving
$4,000 in his will, the income from
which was secured to Theodore for life.
That life, after 30 years of imprison-
ment in what he was wont to call "a
good boarding house, but having some
of the biggest 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 under the hallucination that he
was George Washington, and was fond
of assuming the traditional attitudes of
the Father of his Country. At the oc-
caslOnal DallS gwen 10 the inmates taV-
eraging some five hundred in number)
he was always eXquisitely dressed, in
the style of his day, and was the beau
par excellence. During all these long
years, despite his general gentleness and
of manner, he was restless
and disconnected, and required close
watching, il never, in fact, having been
considered prudent to. allow him 10 go
out into the grounds without attendants.
About the year 1860 his condition began
to grow worse. and he soon after be-
came demented, continuing in hopeless
idiocy until n few days since, when
death, greater healer than time. placed
him again upon an equality 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
will. Aud so ends as sad a
story as the truth of history ever COM
10 be written.
Two sons of Henry Clay yet survive |
him, T. III. Clay, eX-Minister TO Hondu- |
ras, now residing on his place, Mans |
field" near Lexington, and John M. |
Clay, the raiser of Kentucky, and one !
of the greatest turf-men living.