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
A great mind, a great heart, a great orator, a great career, have been
consigned to history. She will record his rare gifts of deep insight,
keen discrimination, clear statement, rapid combination, plain, direct,
and convincing logic. She will love to dwell on that large, generous,
magnanimous, open, forgiving heart. She will linger, with fond delight,
on the recorded and traditional stories of an eloquence that was so
masterful and stirring, because it was but _himself_, struggling to
come forth on the living words――because, though the words were brave
and strong, and beautiful and melodious, it was felt that, behind
them there was a _soul_ braver, stronger, more beautiful, and more
melodious, than language could express. She will point to a career
of statesmanship which has, to a remarkable degree, stamped itself on
the public policy of the country, and reached, in beneficent practical
results, the fields, the looms, the commercial marts, and the quiet
homes of all the land, where his name was, with the departed fathers,
and is with the living children, and will be, with successive
generations, an honored household word.
I feel, as a man, the grandeur of this career. But as an immortal,
with this broken wreck of mortality before me, with this scene as the
‘end-all’ of human glory, I feel that no career is truly great but that
of him who, whether he be illustrious or obscure, lives to the future
in the present, and linking himself to the spiritual world, draws from
God the life, the rule, the motive, and the reward of all his labor. So
would that great spirit which has departed say to us, could he address
us now. So did he realize, in the calm and meditative close of life.
I feel that I but utter the lessons which, living, were his last and
best convictions, and which, dead, would be, could he speak to us, his
solemn admonitions, when I say that statesmanship is then only glorious,
when it is _Christian_: and that man is then only safe, and true to his
duty, and his soul, when the life which he lives in the flesh is the
life of faith in the Son of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account