HENRY CLAY.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 755, 9 July 1853, Page 3

HENRY CLAY.

[From the “ 'i

Henry Clay, whose death took place at Washington, belonged to the second generation of American statesmen, but he may be ranked amongst the first class of American worthies ; and while his country will deservedly pay the highest honours to his memory, his virtues and his talents entitle him to be regretted by (he

world. In that new hemisphere where so little is old or venerable, Mr. Clay seemed at the close of his long life to be invested with something of antique greatness, and to represent the spirit of a wiser and severer age, transmitted to himself from the founders of the American commonwealth. For whatever democratic institutions may have done for the United States, they have apparently failed to perpetuated- reproduce that lofty character for political principle and personal dignity which gave the earlier American statesmen their place in history. Mr. Clay however, may be classed with them, and his death closes the epoch to which those great citizens belonged. Mr. Clay was born on the 12th of April, 1777, in Hanover county, Virginia, consequently only three years after the Declaration of Independence, and in the State which was to produce some of the first champions and governors of the American Confederation. His life includes the whole era of his country’s history, from the doubtful contest of a revolted colony and the formation of the Union to the present exalted condition of Its prosperity and power. For upwards of 50 years he had taken an active part in public affairs. At the early age of 20 he began to practise the law with success at the bar of Lexington, in the Stale of Kentucky, which he thenceforth adopted as his own. He was soon afterwards elected a member of the Convention to form the State Constitution of Kentucky, in which capacity he endeavoured, though in vain, to introduce measures for the gradual eradication of slavery. The assembly of Kentucky raised him at an unusually early age to the high post of Senator of the United States, which he continued to occupy during great part of his life. In one of the intervals, however, in his senatorial career he was returned to the House of Representatives, which chose him Speaker; other interruptions were caused by his temporary acceptance of office. In 1813 we find Mr. Clay eagerly advocating the necessity of war with Great Britain, and his speech on the new Army Bill of that date bears few traces of the systematic policy of the Whig party to which he belonged, or of the habitual moderation of his character. Yet he was attached to the mission of Mr. Adams and Mr. Gallatin, which negotiated the treaty of Ghent in thefollowing year, and completed the peace by the subsequent commercial convention concluded in London. He refused a mission to Russia under President Madison, and be declined office under .President Monroe, for the part which he continued to take in political life had never diverted him from his highly successful practice at the bar. But his influence was powerfully exerted in 1824 to carry the Presidential election in favour of John Quincy Adams, and when that contest was decided in favour of his friend, he accepted under him the office of Secretary of State. Mr. Clay was almost a solitary example of a man who ranked equally high as an advocate, a parliamentary orator, and a Minister, and shone alike at the bar, in the Senate, and in the Cabinet. Yet but a small portion of his life was spent in power, and although he was regarded by his countrymen as the first citizen of his age, bis hopes of attaining the highest position in the Executive Power were repeatedly disappointed ; lie passed his life under the Governments of men very inferior to himself in wisdom and energy ; and his most illustrious qualities excluded him from the direct government of the American people. He made fewer concessions than any statesman of his time and country to popular clamour. He adhered more closely than his rivals to fixed principles and traditional rules. Though somewhat more advanced in his opinions than the old Federalist party, lie defended their doctrine with great spirit on the important question of internal improvements; and he devoted his influence and authority at all times to preserve the great principle of the maintenance of the Union. More than once“the judicious acts of compromise proposed by Mr. Clay were the means of terminating the most formidable differences that have yet arisen between the States, and on all these questions bis policy was uniformly regulated by the strictest adherence to the great lessons of Washington. Thus he allayed the dispute as to the unconditional admittance of Missouri into the Union ; lie contributed to that adjustment of the tariff of the United States which reclaimed South Carolina from her course of nullification of the Federal law ; and his last great act was the settlement of the terms on which California and the. newly conquered' territories were admitted to the Confederation without prejudice to the influence of the North, and without extending the curse of slavery to new lands. At an earlier period of his life he had warmly'advocated the cause of South American independence, and the early recognition of the revolted colonies of Spain. He adopted with enthusiasm the idea of a combined American policy, to the exclusion of European influence on that continent. But he gave no encouragement to the schemes of Texan annexation or to the spoliation ofMexico, and he expiated his tardy assent to that unjust and aggressive war by the loss of his only son, who was killed in action in one of the Mexican battles. Probably it was this strong and exclusive American feeling, which was honourable as a form of patriotism, that led Mr. Clay into the principal error of his political life; for unquestionably his authority and his arguments were the stronghold for many years of the system of high tariffs and protective duties in the United States. It is strange at this day to turn back to the narrow and erroneous views of so eminent a man. In 1820, for instance, be declared in Congress that Europe had almost reached her utmost limit of capacity in consuming ihe surplus produce of America, and that they had passed the maximum of foreign demand for breadstuff’s and tobacco. Whence he inferred that the strictest laws were to be enacted for the exclusion of those commodities of European production which could alone be given in exchange for articles of American export. There can be little doubt that the mischievous delusions of Mr. Clay and his friends on these subjects have considerably prolonged the existence of high protective duties in the United States, though these views have been equally injurious to their party interests and to the public prosperity. The Whig party has lost Itself in America, not so much because it is Wlxig as because it is Protectionist. Even in power at the present time it cannot act upon its own principles, and everything seems to denote that the next Presidential election will completely defeat its pretensions. Had Sir. Clay taken a different course on the commercial policy of the Union, he would probably have enjoyed a much longer tenure of office, and he would certainly have deserved a far larger amount of public gratitude.

Yet the name of Henry Clay deserves to rank among the best servants of his coun try, for nothing low or unworthy ever crossed his career. He was a fervent but a judicious lover of freedom, and a careful minister to the general interests. Though connected by the strongest ties with Kentucky, a slave State, and compelled to deal with the institutions of the South as he found them, he never defended them like Calhoun, or them to warp his principle of justice and humanity. Towards foreign nations his policy and language were generally conciliatory and pacific, and the last desire of his life was to appear once more in the Senate of the United States to denounce the absurd and mischievous doctrine of intervention which Kossuth has been labouring to instil into the populace. His highest ambition remained unsatisfied, and it doubtless cost him a pang to receive the announcement that the Whig convention of 1848 had adopted General Taylor, and not himself, as its candidate for the Presidency. Indeed, if others ruled by the favour of an easier fortune, none more deserved to exercise supreme power. But the life of Mr. Clay is another example of the caprices and accidents which determine the gift of elective power; and where universal suffrage is to seek the worthiest citizen It will ever be easier, as it was- in Athens, to ostracise thug to reward him. ' •