The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-30
HENRY CLAY ON CUBA.
Eighty Years Ago He Argued For
the Liberty of Spanish Colonies.

In reading Prentice's life of Henry
Clay one comes upon this situation:
Clay had just returned from the treaty
of Client, whittier, with John Q. Adams,
James A Bayard, Albert Gallatin ana
Jonathan Russell, he had been sent
They had first met at Gottenburg, and
afterward at Client, the British COM
missioners. Lord Gambler, Henry
Goulburn and William Adams, to ne
gotiate a treaty relative to the British
American fisheries. The treaty is
memorable, because wherein Clay ana
Russell were instrumental in forever
closing the Mississippi TO Britist navi-
cation.
While yet abroad, Clay had been
unanimously returned to the congress
of 1916. At the time the sympathies OF
the people OF the United States were
aroused for the patriots OF South Amer
lea, who were asserting and contendlnS
for the same rights our fathers bled Tor
at Camden and Charleston. Prentice
says They were struggling, too. with
a foe whose atrocities and barbaritieS
outrivaled those of the enemy over
whom our fathers triumphed. Spain
had carried on the war with her inSur-
gent colonies in a spirit of demOniac
vengence. The aged patriot, the I'M
vengence. The aged patriot, the I'M
bosom of its mother had been offered up
in one indiscriminate sacrifice The
temples of religion had been polluted
and the gray hairs of priests had been
drenched with blood at the foot of the
altar Cities had been pillaged and
consumed while their inhabitants of
the one sex were maSSacred, the armed
and unarmed together-the other de-
serted, unprotected to all the barbar-
tiles and indignities of war.
wherever the enemy had moved
over the beautiful province of La
Plata, desolation had been left behind
them as if the earth had been black
ened by the fiery tread of demons"
The republican feelings of Clay would
not allow him to contemplate I'M
moved such situation. and in the con-
gress of 1851, when the question was
being discussed in congress of passing d
bill to prevent our citizens from selling
vessels of war to subjects of foreign
power, in a speech Mr.. Clay said: 1T
is impossible for us to deceive our
selves as 10 the true character of the
bill before the house. BestoW upon it
what denomination you will-disguise
it as you may, it will be understood by
the world as a law to discOuntenance
any aid being given to the South Amer
lean patriots now in a state of revo-
With respect to the nature of that
struggle L have not now for the first
time TO express my opinion and wishes.
/ wish them independence. 1t is the
first step toward improving their con-
dition. Let them have free government
if they are capable of enjoying it. At
any rate let them have independence.
In this l may be accused of impru-
dence in the utterance of my feelings
on this occasion. l care not, when the
independence, the happiness. the liberty
of whole people is at stake and that
people our neighborS, our brethren, oc-
cupying a portion of our continent,
initiating our example, and participant
ing of the same sympathies as our
selves"
In the summer of 1917 the president.
Madison. appointed Commissioners
Rodney, Graham and Bland to proceed
to South America for the purpose Of
ascertaining the real condition of the
country and the character of the peo-
pie If read now, Clay's speech in the
house would seem to apply wonderfully
to the present time and occasion. 1t
was in brief as follows: He contem-
plated the struggle going on in South
America, took stock of its resources,
extent. scenery, of the policy of Spain
toward her colonies, from the earliest
settlement down to the transaction of
Bayonne, when the Spanish king alb
dictated and thereby released his sub
jects from allegiance, because al
legiance is founded on protection. Said
Clay: Il take q broader, holder posi-
ton; l maintain that an oppressed peo-
pie are authorized whenever they can
rise and break their letters. This was
the great principle of the English revo-
luton, the great principle of our own.
We must therefore pass sentence of
condemnation upon the founders of our
own liberty-Say they were rebels and
traitors-that we are at this moment
legislating without competent powers
before we condemn the cause of Span
ish America. Our revolution was main
ly directed against the mere theory of
tyranny We had suffered but COM
paratively little--we had in some re-
spects, been kindly treated-but our
intelligent forefathers saw, in the
usurpation of the power to tax, the
long train of oppressive acts which
were to follow. They rose. they breasted
the storm-they conquered, and left us
the glorious legacy of freedom. Span
ish America for centuries has been
doomed to the practical effects of an
odiouS tyranny. If we were justified,
she is more than justified" After
speaking of the advantages to us of a
South American commerce, ne speaks
as follows: Recognition alone, with
out aid, is no just cause of war. With
aid, it is-not because of the recogni-
ton, but because of the aid, as aid,
without recognition, is cause of war.
The truth of the proposition is main
tanned by the practice of other states
and by the usages of our own. There
is no common tribunal among the ma
lions TO pronounce upon the fact of the
sovereignty of new state Each