In meeting the storm of opposition which raged like a tempest around him, Mr. Clay is represented to have been ‘a flame of fire.’ He had now brought congress to the verge of what he conceived to be a war for liberty and honor, and his voice, inspired by the occasion, ran through the capitol like a trumpet-tone sounding for the onset. On the subject of the policy of the embargo, his eloquence, like a Roman phalanx, bore down all opposition, and he put to shame those of his opponents who flouted the government as being unprepared for war. ‘Why is it,’ he exclaimed, indignantly, ‘that we are no _better_ prepared? Because the gentlemen themselves have thrown every possible obstacle in our way! They have opposed the raising of an army――the fitting out of a naval armament――the fortification of our frontiers――and now talk of the madness of engaging in a war for which we are not _prepared_! It is asked what new cause of war? In reply I will ask what _old_ cause of war is avenged? Has Great Britain abstained from impressing our seamen? I have no doubt but that the late Indian hostilities on the Wabash were excited by the British. Is not this cause of war?’ There was no withstanding his eloquent and patriotic appeals. They made every heart in the house vibrate and glow with intense desire to arouse and avenge the aggravated abuse heaped upon us by our foreign foe. After an ineffectual attempt to procure an amendment to the bill by extending the embargo to ninety days, it passed by a vote of seventy to forty-one. It was then sent to the senate, which introduced the amendment proposed in the house, which was adopted by it, and after receiving the signature of the president, it became the law of the land on the fourth day of April.