A Biography of Henry Clay, the Senator from Kentucky: Containing Also, a Complete Report of All His Speeches; Selections From His Private Correspondence; Eulogies in the Senate and House; and a Poem, by George D. Prentice, Esq.
History
A Biography of Henry Clay, the Senator from Kentucky: Containing Also, a Complete Report of All His Speeches; Selections From His Private Correspondence; Eulogies in the Senate and House; and a Poem, by George D. Prentice, Esq.
Clay, Henry, 1777-1852; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
‘It is provided that the said state shall never pass any law preventing
any description of persons from coming to or settling in the said state,
who now are or may hereafter become citizens of any of the states of
this union, and also that the legislature of the said state by a public
act shall declare the assent of the state to this provision, and shall
transmit to the president of the United States, on or before the fourth
Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act, upon the
receipt whereof, the president by proclamation shall announce the fact,
whereupon and without any farther proceedings on the part of congress,
the admission of the said state into the union shall be considered
as complete, and it is provided further that nothing herein contained
shall be construed to take from the state of Missouri, when admitted
into the union, the exercise of any right or power which can now be
constitutionally exercised by any of the original states.’ The report
was made to include this provision with direct reference to those who
opposed the admission in consequence of the repugnance of a clause of
the constitution of Missouri to the constitution of the United States,
which, if they were sincere in their opposition, would cause them to
desist. The house took up the report on the twelfth, when Mr. Clay
entered into a minute detail of the deliberations of the committee,
the difficulties that attended them, and the causes which led to the
adoption of the resolution in the report, and concluded by beseeching
them to cherish a feeling of conciliation, and to temper their
proceedings by moderation. The report was rejected in committee of
the whole on the state of the union, but was afterwards adopted in the
house. On the third reading of the resolution, another sharp debate
ensued, which was terminated by Mr. Clay, who is represented as having
reasoned, remonstrated, and entreated, that the house would settle the
question. He is represented as having been almost the only individual
who was collected and calm. While others were covered with the foam
of fierce debate, and lashed into fury by the combined influences of
political or personal animosity, he seemed like one dwelling in the
region of perpetual serenity on some lofty mountain, and contemplating
unmoved the storm that was raging and bursting around its base. ‘Every
darker passion seemed to have died within him, and he looked down upon
the maddening and terrific scene with that calm and sublime regret,
and gave utterance to his thoughts in that high, majestic, and pathetic
eloquence, which seemed almost to designate him as a superior being
commissioned by heaven to warn our country against the sin of anarchy
and blood.’ The resolution, notwithstanding his exertions, was lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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