None can fail to perceive, that these remarks are not of an ordinary character, even for Mr. Clay. But the calm dignity of their aspect from the pages where they lie recorded, in an imperfect report, can afford but a very faint idea of the manner, voice, intonations, pauses, bursts, thunders, low yet audible whispers, and all other attributes ascribed to this orator, on such occasions, in chapter iv., of the first volume. Many were startled from their seats, in admiration and ecstacy, and then sat down, as they afterward declared, because they could not stand. The senate immediately adjourned, as if conscious of the overpowering solemnity of the occasion, and a troop of friends-among whom were some political opponents-involuntarily surrounded Mr. Clay, offering him wine and water, while he wiped the floods of passion from his brows.

Not more than once since this occasion-probably it will never occur again—has Mr. Clay burst forth with all his astonishing powers, as a public orator. That was in May, 1843, as described in the chapter of this work above alluded to, when he addressed his fellow-citizens of Kentucky, at Lexington, in defence of himself, and of the twenty-seventh Congress. He was then strongly moved by two unlike emotions-pain that his friends had expressed some regret for the appointment he had made, and a virtuous indignation for the base calumnies that had been propagated against him; and these sentiments set in motion every other of which man is susceptible, and raised them to the highest pitch. From the first word he spoke, to the end, he was everything of which he was capable, as an orator, and the effect was prodigious. In the same manner, in this reply to Mr. Rives, powerful emotions roused every passion of his soul. The state of the country, the disappointment occasioned by the conduct of the acting president, the fact that one senator on that floor could rise in vindication of such conduct, and the manner of his doing it, with a thousand thoughts rushing out from the past, and looking into the future, as allied to the momentous interests of the republic, for the preservation and success of which he had labored so long and with so much concern and rising as he did from a sudden impulse, imparted by a friend-all combined to stir up his soul to one of those mighty efforts, which, in the course of his life, have now and then excited so much amazement, and produced such marvellous effects.

MR. CLAY AND THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

What gained and What lost.-Perfidy of the Acting President.-Mr. Clay's Position. His Plan of National Policy and Reform, submitted in the Form of Resolutions.-Statement and Consideration of this Plan.-Objects aimed at in 1840.-Doom of the then existing Administration.-Could not reform.-Must therefore forge Chains.-Project for a Standing Army of 200,000.-The SubTreasury. Disclosures of Extravagance and Corruption made by the TwentySeventh Congress.-Their Fidelity.

THE great measure of the twenty-seventh Congress was the tariff of 1842, which rescued the country, and was sufficient to sécure its prosperity, under many disadvantages. Nearly all the other great measures of national policy, contemplated by the party which came into power with such an unprecedented and overwhelming majority-among which as most prominent, were the reestablishment of a national currency, and the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the states-were defeated by the political defection and faithless conduct of the acting chief magistrate.

Nothing of material consequence was effected for the relief of the country, at the extra session of the twenty-seventh Congress, except the repeal of the sub-treasury, and the rescue of the debtor portion of the community by the passage of a bankrupt law-a most undesirable necessity, created by the wide-spread disasters of misrule, and a measure, which is always sure to make as many more enemies than friends, as the number of creditors exceeds that of the debtors relieved, and therefore demanding eminent moral courage and patriotic resolution to put it in operation. It was the beginning of the misfortunes of the party raised to power, that the only new and great measure which the perversity of the acting chief magistrate, in the use of the regal power of the constitution, would allow them to pass at this session, was an obnoxious one. That very power, for ever subverting the public will,

as expressed by its representative organs, which Mr. Clay had been fighting against so long, had started up, with new and hydra heads, at the moment when it was supposed to be crushed, and in the very agent, who was appointed to suppress it! And it appeared again to disappoint the nation of the object of its great and agonizing effort for relief.

Nevertheless, even in these discouraging circumstances, Mr. Clay was still at his post; and his plan of public policy, which he thought it his duty to submit to this Congress, before he retired for ever from that field of labor where he had toiled, with little interruption, nearly forty years, was propounded to the senate in the resolutions he there offered on the first of March, 1842, and explained and advocated in his speech made on the same occasion. He begins as follows:

"Mr. President, the resolutions which have just been read, and which are to form the subject of the present discussion, are of the greatest importance, involving interests of the highest character, and a system of policy which, in my opinion, lies at the bottom of any restoration of the prosperity of the country. In discussing them, I would address myself to you in the language of plainness, of soberness, and truth. I did not come here as if I were entering a garden full of flowers, and of the richest shrubbery, to cull the tea-roses, the japonicas, the jasmines, and woodbines, and weave them into a garland of the gayest colors, that, by the beauty of their assortment, and by their fragrance, I may gratify fair ladies. Nor is it my wish-it is far, far from my wish-to revive any subjects of a party character, or which might be calculated to renew the animosities which unhappily have hitherto prevailed between the two great political parties of the country. My course is far different from this; it is to speak to you of the sad condition of our country; to point out, not the remote and original, but the proximate, the immediate causes which have produced, and are likely to continue our distresses, and to suggest a remedy. If any one, in or out of the senate, has imagined it to be my intention, on this occasion, to indulge in any ambitious display of language, to attempt any rhetorical flights, or to deal in any other figures than figures of arithmetic, he will find himself greatly disappointed. The farmer, if he is a judicious man, does not begin to plough till he has first laid off his land, and marked it off at proper distances, by planting stakes, by which his ploughmen are to be guided in their movements; and the ploughman, accordingly, fixes his eye upon the stake opposite to the end of the destined furrow, and then endeavors to reach it by a straight and direct line. These resolutions are my stakes."

The position which Mr. Clay occupied at this moment, is one that justly claims, and will naturally excite, the profoundest interest. He had done all he could, in a struggle of many years, to save the country from the calamitous effects of former usurpations of regal power; he had magnanimously fought through the political revolution of 1840, on the stump, in support of the candidate who had received the suffrages of the Harrisburg convention, of 1839, to the exclusion of himself, whom every just-minded man knew ought to have been the nominee; he had reluctantly retained his seat in the senate, to assist in establishing the measures of the new administration; the lamented Harrison, who enjoyed the sincere friendship and respect of Mr. Clay, by an inscrutable dispensation of Providence, had descended to the tomb; a miserable creature, on whose faith, in the social relations, not the least reliance could be placed, succeeded to power, who, after he came to act as chief magistrate, could not command the respect of one honorable man, and was surrounded only by the vilest sycophants; and as a consequence of this infidelity, all the contemplated measures of the new administration were put in jeopardy, and some of the most vital were already sacrificed by the perfidy of this man, when Mr. Clay brought forward these resolutions on this occasion. Labors lost, and universal gloom, overshadowed the minds of all true patriots. All that Mr. Clay could do, was to submit his propositions to Congress and the nation, if, peradventure, a more fortunate period of the republic might yet come round, when they would chance to receive due consideration. Mr. Clay proceeded to say: "The first resolution declares

"That it is the duty of the general government, for conducting its administration, to provide an adequate revenue within the year, to meet the current expenses of the year; and that any expedient, either by loan or treasury-notes, to supply, in time of peace, a deficiency of revenue, especially during successive years, is unwise, and must lead to pernicious consequences.'

"I have heard it asserted, that this resolution is but a truism. If 80, I regret to say, that it is one from which governments too often depart, and from which this government especially has departed during the last five years. Has an adequate revenue been provided within each of those years, to meet the necessary expenses of those same years? No; far otherwise.

"In 1837, at the called session, instead of imposing the requisite amount of taxes on the free articles, according to the provisions of the compromise act, what was the resort of the administration? To treasury-notes. And the same expedient of treasury-notes has

been ever since adopted, from year to year, to supply the deficit accruing. And, of necessity, this policy cast upon the administration succeeding, an unascertained, unliquidated debt, inducing a temporary necessity on that administration, to have resort to the same means of supply.*

*

"The next three resolutions all relate to the same general sub-jects-subjects which I consider much the most important of any here set forth; and I shall, for that reason, consider them together. "The second resolution asserts :—

"That such an adequate revenue can not be obtained by duties on foreign imports, without adopting a higher rate than twenty per centum, as provided for in the compromise act, which, at the time of its passage, was supposed and assumed as a rate that would supply a sufficient revenue for an economical administration of the government.'

"The third resolution concludes :—

"That the rate of duties on foreign imports ought to be augmented beyond the rate of twenty per centum, so as to produce net revenue of twenty-six millions of dollars-twenty-two for the ordinary expenses of government, two for the payment of the existing debt, and two millions as a reserved fund for contingencies.' "The fourth resolution asserts:

"That, in the adjustment of a tariff to raise an amount of twenty-six millions of revenue, the principles of the compromise act generally should be adhered to; and that especially a maximum rate of ad-valorem duties should be established, from which there ought to be as little departure as possible.'

"The first question which these resolutions suggest, is this: what should be the amount of the annual expenditures of this government? Now, on this point, I shall not attempt, what is impossible, to be exact and precise in stating what that may be. We can only make an approximation. No man, in his private affairs, can say, or pretends to say, at the beginning of the year, precisely

It was in the revenue bill of 1841 (extra session), that Mr. Clay moved an amendment for the protection of silver ware and jewelry. The duties on these articles had been 12 per cent.; the bill went from the house to the senate, reduced in this item to 5 per cent. Mr. Clay's amendment raised the duties on silver ware to 30 per cent., and on jewelry to 25, which passed, and the same are incorporated in the tariff of 1842. In gratitude for this service, the New York gold and silver artisans-refusing subscription from the dealers-alone raised $1,000, and presented Mr. Clay with a splendid silver vase, weighing 275 ounces, surmounted by the American eagle, perched on a rock dashed by the waves of the sea, surrounded by a circle of hearts, the whole exhibiting various appropriate and elegant devices, and displaying the following inscription: "Presented to HENRY CLAY, by the gold and silver artisans of the city of New York, as a tribute of their respect for the faithful and patriotic manner in which he has discharged his high public trusts, and especially for his early and untiring advocacy of PROTECTION TO AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 1845. Wm. Adams, M. G. Baldwin, A. G. Peckham, Edwd. Y. Prime, Dan. Carpenter, David Dunn, committee." It is proper to observe, that a committee of the above two classes of artisans, had been sent to Washington to implore protection against foreign competition and the frauds of foreign factors, and that the bill was about to pass, when Mr. Clay moved his amendment, and saved them