The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-27

I names as Jackson and Webster and | sherman and Grant and Lincoln ant I Garfield. and a host of others that H. | luminate our history. Each of thest
 may be described:
 As soft divinely gifted man
 l Whose life in low estate began
 And on a simple village green
 Who breaks his births invidious bar. And grasps the skirts of happy l Chance.
 And breasts the blows of Circum- | stance.
 And grapples with his evil star:
 Who makes by force his merit knowr | And lives to clutch the golden keys, | To mould a mighty States decrees.
 And shape the whisper of the throne;
 And. moving up from high to higher. l Becomes on Fortunes frowning slope | The pillar of a peoples hope,
 l The ceEter of worlds desire.
 l Such a man was Henry Clay. He was | born one hundred and twenty-three years ago; he will live forever. His l early recollections were of an humole
 home in a wretched little settlement ir Virginia; in his latest years he was l known to all the world. He was the
 son of an obscure Baptist preacher; he became the idol of the nation.
 The early years of Clay were without | incidents, save such as come to all in 1 telligent, ambitious young men who have to make their own way in the
 world. At the age of 21. as an impecu- nious young lawyer, he turned his face
 to the West. that Mecca of fortune
 hunters, who desire an adequate field
 for the exercise of conscious but un- l tried powers. Setti ng in Lexington, l Ky, then a small frontier town, he be- gan the practice of his profession. h. evitahly one so young and with such
 scanty early training had very little general education and very little spe- cial knowledge of the law. But what
 he lacked in mental discipline and in- l formation was fully atoned for by spe- cial gifts. He had a graceful bearing, | a magnificent voice and a fluency of 1 strong and effective speech that never l failed him. These gifts he cultivated | to the fullest extent, and as he like wise possessed ia a remarkable meas | ure that mysterious power termed
 personal magnetism he made his way | rapidly and soon had a more enthusi-
 astic and devoted personal following lldH duy OGIltT Han III HIS state. AnQ from that allegiance they never wav-
 cred. At the age of 29 he was sent to fill out an unexpired term in the United
 States Senate-the youngest man that
 ever held seat In that body-and from
 that day almost until the end of life,
 period of forty-six years, he was a
 prominent public man. Not that he
 held office for the entire time, nor that
 he was always engaged in national
 pol tics; but he gained a reputation so
 rapidly that from the beginning he was
 recognized as man of great powers,
 Who would yet be heard from.
 In 1911 Clay was chosen as member of
 tho House of Representatives and it
 was in this congenial arena that his
 really great public career began. His style of oratory found this more fit
 ting field for its exercise at that time
 than was the severer standard of the
 Senate. He had already gained wide
 popularity and was promptly chosen speaker. But this position of dignity
 and power did not interfere with the
 frequent display of his oratorical gifts. Many important questions during this
 period were considered in committee
 of the whole. and Clay took an active
 part in the discuss ions. He belonged
 To the aggressive wing of the Repub-
 lIcan (now the Democratic) Party. The
 Whig Party, of which he was after ward a leader, did not come into be- lnS till fifteen or more years later. Tn these years Clay was one of the strong est advocates of the war of 1872. and dld all he could to lead Congress to ddopt measures in support of the war ana 10 arouse the people to stand bv the GoVernment in prosecuting the struggle. ~Ae
 His most significant labors. however ana those that made the deepest ana most momentous impress upon our his- tory were performed in subsequent years Ihese were largely the labors tnot save to him the title of the cator." pSSii-
 No question in all our history av.r gave rise to so bitter and so nroIon oes controversy as that of slavery Evsn Tn the framing of the Constitution thi. supJect came up for dispute. Should sla"es De counted as men or as chat tels! If as men. then the slave e-hoIding states would have an undue proportion or representatives in Congress: if as chattels. then the South would have to pear undue part of the burden of direct taxation. When voting, the slave States wanted the negroes count~ ed; when paying taxes. they preferred to leave them out. The result was whereby five negroes were to be counted as equal to three white nen. It was largely owing to this pro- vision that the slave States exercised a. future In our National Leg islature for nearly the entire period | of our history from the inauguration of | Jefferson to the outbreak of the Civil | War.
 So long as the country included only the original States or those either so | far south or so far north that the ex- istence of slavery within them. or its l when admitted to the Union, | was a foregone conclusion. this ques- | ton gave rise to no difficulties. But | when new States on the bo. der, tha, might become either slave territory, | or free, knocked at the door of the ma tion, controversy was sure to arise. | And this not only because property in terests were involved, but most of all. | because political, social and moral questions were raised that touched the very springs of national existence.
 Tn 1919 Missouri applied for State hood. At once a proposition was in- troduced in Congress forbidding slave rv So sudden was the annaarancA of