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
In this instance, we can be at no loss for these. This land, sir, is
full of the monuments of his genius. His memory is as imperishable as
American history itself, for he was one of those who made it. Sir, he
belonged to that marked class who are the men of their century; for
it was his rare good fortune not only to have been endowed with the
capacity to do great things, but to have enjoyed the opportunities of
achieving them. I know, sir, it has been said and deplored, that he
wanted some of the advantages of an early education; but it, perhaps,
has not been remembered that, in many respects, he enjoyed such
opportunities for mental training as can rarely fall to the lot of
man. He had not a chance to learn so much from books, but he had such
opportunities of learning from men as few have ever enjoyed. Sir, it
is to be remembered that he was reared at a time when there was a state
of society, in the commonwealth which gave him birth, such as has never
been seen there before nor since. It was his early privilege to see how
justice was administered by a Pendleton and a Wythe, with the last of
whom he was in the daily habit of familiar intercourse. He had constant
opportunities to observe how forensic questions were managed by a
Marshall and a Wickham. He was old enough, too, to have heard and to
have appreciated the eloquence of a Patrick Henry, and of George Keith
Taylor. In short, sir, he lived in a society in which the examples of a
Jefferson, and a Madison, and a Monroe, were living influences, and on
which the setting sun of a Washington cast the mild effulgence of its
departing rays.
He was trained, too, as has been well said by the senator from
Michigan, [Mr. Cass,] at a period when the recent revolutionary
struggle had given a more elevated tone to patriotism, and imparted
a higher cast to public feeling and to public character. Such lessons
were worth, perhaps, more to him than the whole encyclopedia of
scholastic learning. Not only were the circumstances of his early
training favorable to the development of his genius, but the theatre
upon which he was thrown, was eminently propitious for its exercise.
The circumstances of the early settlement of Kentucky, the generous,
daring, and reckless character of the people――all fitted it to be the
theatre for the display of those commanding qualities of heart and mind,
which he so eminently possessed. There can be little doubt but that
those people and their chosen leader exercised a mutual influence upon
each other; and no one can be surprised that, with his brave spirit,
and commanding eloquence, and fascinating address, he should have led
not only there, but elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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