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MR. CLAY.

It is a consequence flowing from the nature of our institutions, that the character and estimate of individuals, of high merit, we might almost say their positive power and influence, depend little on the possession of office. A more striking proof of the truth of this remark need not be wished, than is furnished in the case of him, whose name we have placed at the head of this article. In the five and twenty years during which Mr. Clay has been occupied in public offices, there has never been a moment, in which so great a portion of public respect and regard has seemed to attach to him, as at the present when party calumny and party clamor have driven him, and his associates in the Executive Government of our country, from their stations. When the third rate men, whom circumstance and fortune have placed in power, as one is almost tempted to think, by way of a jest upon our elective systems, shall have passed away, leaving no more track than the slightest cloud leaves in the sky over which it passes, the name of Mr. Clay will be connected with memorials of talent and evidences of patriotism. which will embody his name and character in the history of his

country.

It is not our purpose, however, to pass encomiums on this distinguished man, nor is it even our object to endeavor to attract public attention towards him. This last purpose, indeed, would be quite superfluous. In this part of the country, certainly, we hesitate not to say that he is, at this moment, an object of higher and more general regard than any other public man. Admiration for his talents and respect for his principles are accompanied, very generally, throughout New England at least, with the conviction that he has suffered great injustice, and most unmerited abuse. The time may come, or it may not, when it shall be deemed proper to give expression, in the most effectual manner, to these sentiments of attachment. But, in the meantime, the truth that they exist, deep and strong, is too obvious for anything but falsehood or folly to deny. Mr. Clay has himself not frequently visited New England. He has been seen but by few of her citizens; and on this account, mainly, we have. thought a few observations in regard to him might not be unacceptable to our readers.

In personal appearance, Mr. C. is rather above the ordinary height, well made, though somewhat slender, and of a striking and manly carriage and deportment. He may now be, we suppose, fifty-five years of age. For the last six or seven years, his health has been delicate, and occasionally feeble; but recently it is understood to have much improved, and now to give a promise of entire

VOL. 1.-NO. V.

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restoration and confirmation. In his ordinary intercourse, Mr. C. is social, accessible, and interesting. The frankness of his character overflows his manners; and in social as well as in public life, he has found sometimes, that generosity and unsuspecting confidence have betrayed him into the power of men of more cunning than principle, more selfishness than honor. He possesses the true spirit of conversation. It is not, with him, an occasion for a set and formal speech; nor yet one confined to interrogatories and answers on mere topics of course. He converses with ease and propriety; his discourse is sufficiently "sweet and voluble," and it indicates at the same time, a man of sense, and character; using that word, in its sense of individuality. His information is various and general, especially in relation to matters of business and politics; with much more of learning and of literature, than the nature of his education and the employments of his life would lead us to expect.

Mr. C. went early from Virginia to Kentucky, to follow his fortunes in the new and opening world of the West. His profession was the law; a profession which not only sharpens the intellect, and strengthens the understanding, but, by the stimulus of a constantly present and active competition, as well as by its connexion with the means of political advancement, in a government like ours, naturally awakens, in ardent minds, strong pantings of ambition. Mr. Clay reached immediately a high standing, in his profession, and found himself also at an early period a member of the Legislature of the State. From the chair of the popular Branch of that body, he was elected a senator of the U. States, in 1810, if we err not in the date. He remained not long in this situation, perceiving no doubt, that the capitol had another theatre better fitted for the part which he was likely to act. He resigned his seat in the Senate, we believe, after having filled it but a single session, and was returned a member of the National House of Representatives from the Lexington District. It is an occurrence without a parallel, that the first day he took his seat in the House he was elected its Speaker. The event justified this confidence in advance. He filled a chair, in which, before or since, Sedgwick and Trumbull, Macon and Cheves have sat, with an ability it may now well be the proudest hope of any successor to equal. For thorough and exact knowledge of parliamentary usage and the rules of the House, for clearness of perception and promptitude of decision, it would be presumptuous, we suppose, to expect soon to see his superior. When having been out of Congress, he returned to it again in 1823, two thirds of the members concurred in placing him once more in the chair, although the speaker of the preceding Congress, Mr. P. P. Barbour, was candidate against him.

Though its Speaker, Mr. C. was accustomed to bear a part, in the debates of the House, on all occasions of leading interest. It is not our purpose to speak of the degree of ability manifested by these speeches. They have been universally read, and the whole country is familiar with them. But all have not seen nor heard Mr. C.; and therefore a remark or two on his manner and appearance as a public speaker, will not be out of place here. Of what may be called the personal requisites for an acceptable public speaker, he has an uncommon share. He has a tall and erect figure, with a general air and appearance such as prepossesses and strikes the audience. His voice is perhaps not equalled by that of any other public speaker in the country. It has not only great force, and compass, but is also clear, flexible, and susceptible of great variety of modulation. He has no doubt, sometimes the common fault of the country-at least the common fault of members of Congress-speaking too loud; and his earnestness and ardor occasionally expose him to the danger of too much apparent vehemence. A northern audience, especially, would be likely to think that he speaks, even on ordinary topics, and under ordinary circumstances, with a degree of warmth, which, in our colder latitudes, is excited, or by our opinions justified, only by uncommon occasions. The result of all that belongs to his manner, is, that he is both an imposing and a persuasive speaker. He fixes the attention, and holds it as long and as steadily, probably, as any man that has ever appeared in our halls of legislature. Frank, lofty, and disinterested, with power to defend, and capacity to lead, he must necessarily be, and would always be, an important individual in any public assembly to which he might belong. Since he has been out of Congress, his public speeches have been principally such as have been occasioned by festivities to which he has been invited as a guest, in those parts of the country, where custom has rendered it indispensable on such occasions to make an address. Fastidious friends and false friends, and of course enemies, have reproached him for the frequency of these efforts, and have sought to degrade him by fixing on him the appellation of a "table orator." Most of this rebuke has originated in hostility, open or concealed; and the rest in a want of attention to the circumstances in which he has been placed. Was he to decline all invitations to such meetings, from his friends and his neighbors, at a time when a tempest of the grossest calumny was beating upon him, from the presses in the interest, (we do not use too strong a phrase) of those who sought to destroy him? If he accepted such invitations, was he to follow the custom of the country, or was he to break it and be silent? When he spoke, it was easy to say that he would better have consulted his dignity by being silent, but if he had been silent, it would have been as easy to have inferred conscious guilt from the fact, that, having a suitable occasion

to defend himself, he had, nevertheless, been able to make no defence at all. He has acted on the idea, that a public man, attacked as he has been, must repel those attacks, not once only, but often and always, lest the uncontradicted repetition of calumny should wear a channel for it in the public opinion. It is not always easy to decide, when slander should be noticed and when disregard ed. In Mr. C's case, we think the result has shown that he judged right, and acted wisely. His repeated vindications of himself against the charge of bargain and corruption-a charge ridiculous enough in itself, but in its effects not to be despised-have, in our opinion, contributed with other causes, to bring about that just and equitable reaction of public sentiment, which, at the present moment, seems giving to his character a new degree of interest and importance. It seems to us impossible that every fair and honorable mind should not rejoice in this tone of sense, sanity, and good feeling, to which that portion of public opinion which has departed from it appears to be returning. For ourselves, without looking to future events, or contemplating the probability of Mr. Clay's return to public life, we feel the sincerest pleasure in seeing him elevated, in the public judgment, to the high station to which his character, his talents, and his services justly entitle him.

But we do not, nevertheless, confine ourselves entirely to this abstract view of the matter. We think it hardly probable that Mr. Clay is destined to pass the remainder of his life in his retreat at Ashland. Standing, as we think he does at this very moment, an object of more interest and regard than any other man in the United States, there is evidently nothing to keep him out of the sphere of political action but one single event, the probability of which, never great, appears to us to be fast diminishing; and that is, that the persons now in power shall so conduct the concerns of government, as to give no just occasion for opposition. For our humble selves, we are free to say, that, in our opinion, the first leading measure of the present administration has been such as should awaken the attention and the alarm of all intelligent friends of the constitution. This leading measure is, a general change, in all the offices of government, from motives merely personal; an attempt to form a combination, to retain power, by the patronage of the government itself. It is not mainly that our sympathies are awakened by the removal of men from the little employments under government, who have been bred to these employments, and have no other means of living; although we are far, very far, from disclaiming such sympathy, and from scoffing at the expression of it as unbecoming whining. Our objection lies deeper. The principle of this mode of administration is hostile to the spirit of the constitution and the existence of the government. If this bad example is to be followed, we entertain

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