The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-07-15

HENRY CLAY, RICHMOND
Written by Philip Kab1e a Member
of the American Historical As
ISOLATION.

Mendenhall was III person 10
work his way through hooting, Jeer-
ing, threatening crowd, for he was a
tall, muscular man, weighing 200
pounds, then in the prime Of manhood
being Al years old.
He arrived at the speakers stand
with his coat badly cut by the mob,
and doubtless would have received
personal injury had not Henry Clay
stepped to the front part Of the plat
form and said to the crowd, "For
your sake, for my sake, and for God 8
sake, do not insult nor do violence to
the committee?
Mendenhall stepped upon the plat
form, handed Clay the petition, and
when he saw they were not going to
give him a chair he sat down on the
floor. a little to one side of the speak
err.
Clay read the petition and made it
has been regarded as a political blum
der that cost him the loss Of the presi-
deney in 1874, when he went down for
the third and last time in defeat.
The committee on presentation re-
ported the substance Of his speech, Of
which the following are the principal
points: He said the act Of presenting
the petition was beneath the dignity
Of an American citizen. "Petitions,'
said he, care from interiors to super
iors, or to those having absolute pow
err. The petition should have been
brought to Ashland. The singers
were Democrats and those of a shade
darker, and its design was to create
influence against me. Suppose you
We're travelling through my country
and | should ask you to give up your
land |? But | a ma ware that you make
a distinction in the different kinds Of
property. We have an idea that
whatever the law secures to us as
property is property. The declaration
of rights Of which you speak was not
intended by those who formed that
document as you interpret it. All
thirteen Of the states that framed
that declaration held slaves at that
very time. Yours is a new interpret
tatlOn.
''Slavery is a great evil; we are in
the midst Of it; fastened upon US by
Great Britain. There is not a man
who deplores slavery more than l do.
But the slave must be prepared for
freedom before he can receive the
great boon. He must have moral cul-
tivation. The Society of Friends
takes the right stand in regard to this
question. Yours are the revolution
airy principles of Thomas Dorr, of
Rhode Island, and should the prin-
ciples Of your petition be granted,
determination and blood would be the
result
estates have rights that you can
no more interfere with than you can
with nations. l own fifty slaves, and l
treat them well ask my Charles here,
he goes as we'll clad and, | believe, is
as honest man as Mr.. Mendenhall.
"My slaves are worth $4,000, and
if the abolitionists will raise and give
them the same amount, | will llberate
them. You have put back emancipa-
ton fifty years. Go home, Mr. Men
denhall, and mind your own bust
nesS.'
The whole affair was simply one of
those earl ~ moral engagements in the
irrepressible conflict of freedom with
slavery, which terminated with the
close of the war of the rebellion.
The vision of Mr.. Clay was imper-
feet when it showed hi mthat the zeal
Of the abolitionist had put back the
emancipation of the slave fifty years;
for not twenty-three years of that
time elapsed until American slavery
was thing Of the past.
But slavery, the cause Of the rebel
lion, was buried at a fearful cost of
blood and treasure Through the vista
of siXty-two years and across 700 bat
tie grounds of the civil war, and over
the graves of 100000 soldiers of the
blue and the gray, and the memory of
the apologizers for slavery grows dim,
while the memory of the advocates of
freedom grows brighter as the wears
go by.
Such nobility belonged to Hiram
Mendenhall and his abolition com
peers in the early forties, and today
we regard them as having been at
home and attending to their own bust