Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/667

CLAY 655 the subject of slavery, taking decided ground against the idea of immediate abolition as vis- ionary and impracticable. In December of that year the opposition, or whig party, held a national convention to nominate candidates for president and vice president, when the names of Mr. Clay, Gen. Harrison, and Gen. Scott were submitted. A decided plurality of the delegates were in favor of Mr. Clay's nomina- tion, but no one got a majority until, after three days' balloting, Gen. Harrison received the nomination, and after an animated canvass was elected by a great majority over Mr. Van Buren. Much feeling was evinced by the more ardent friends of Mr. Clay, not only in the con- vention but throughout the country ; but he promptly signified his acquiescence in the -choice. He remained in the senate, and was recognized in congress as the leader of the now dominant party there. Under his gui- dance the two houses rapidly matured and passed bills repealing the independent treasury .system, incorporating instead a new bank of the United States, distributing prospectively the proceeds of the public lands among the states, and enacting a national bankrupt law. President Harrison died a month after his inauguration, and was succeeded by the vice president, John Tyler of Virginia, who vetoed the second of these measures, but indicated to his friends the outlines of a bank which would meet his approval. Such a bank was immediately chartered, but this was in turn vetoed. This second veto caused an imme- diate and irreparable breach between Presi- dent Tyler with his supporters and the great body of the whigs who sympathized with Mr. Clay. The members of Tyler's cabinet, Mr. Webster excepted, resigned their posts. The chasm between the "Tyler men" and the " Clay whigs" grew daily wider and deeper, and the consequent reversion of power to the party so lately overwhelmed at the polls was inevitable. In March, 1842, Mr. Clay resigned his seat in the senate, with the intention of retiring from public life ; but in May, 1844, he was nominated with great unanimity for the presidency by the whig national convention. On the leading issue of the campaign, the an- nexation of Texas, Mr. Clay declared that he did not object to annexation per se, nor yet on account of slavery, but was opposed to any ab- sorption of Texas while she should remain at war with Mexico, and her soil should continue to be claimed by that nation as a part of her territory. These sentiments were shared by a very large portion of the American people ; but Mr. Polk, who was the democratic candi- date for the presidency, and an avowed annex- ationist, was elected, receiving 170 electoral votes to 105 for Mr. Clay. Mr. Clay's name was one of the most prominent before the whig national convention which assembled in Phila- delphia, June 7, 1848, but Gen. Zachary Taylor finally received the nomination. During the year 1849, the people of Kentucky having re- 196 VOL. iv. 42 solved to remodel their state constitution, Mr. Clay urged them to embody therein the prin- ciple of gradual emancipation ; but they over- ruled this suggestion by a very decided vote, as they had done half a century before. Mr. Clay was once more chosen in December, 1848, to the United States senate, for a full term of six years from the 4th of March en- suing, and took his seat Dec. 3, 1849, 43 years after his first appearance in that body. On Jan. 29, 1850, he submitted to the senate a proposition for " an amicable arrangement of all questions in controversy between the free and the slave states growing out of the subject of slavery." The resolutions, while maintain- ing the non-existence by law of slavery in the territory acquired by the United States from Mexico, declared that in establishing territorial governments in such territory congress should impose no restriction or condition on the sub- ject of slavery. They further provided for the admission of California to the Union, with- out any restriction by congress as to slavery ; opposed the abolition of slavery and the pro- hibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; and declared that congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct trade in slaves between the several slaveholding states, and that more effectual provision should be made for the rendition of fugitive slaves. The memo- rable discussion upon these questions was fol- lowed by the passage of the fugitive slave law, and v of bills admitting California to the Union, organizing the territories of New Mexico and Utah without restriction as to slavery, and prohibiting the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Mr. Clay's last efforts in the senate were in favor of a revision of the tariff of 1846, with a view to additional protection, and of appropriations for internal improvements. During the session of 1851-'2, owing to feeble health, he was in his seat but a few days. He was visited in his room by Louis Kossuth, to whom he expressed sympathy for the struggles and sufferings of Hungary, but aversion to any intervention by the United States government in the sanguinary strifes of Europe. This was his last formal avowal of his sentiments on any public question. He continued to sink gradually till June 29, 1852, when he died. Congress assembled the same day, and each house immediately adjourned, after listening to an announcement of his death. The next day the event was the subject of orations by the leading members of both houses. The bank question is often cited as the only im- portant topic on which Mr. Clay's early im- pressions with regard to a true national policy were essentially changed. It should be noted that he, though among the earliest, most ve- hement, and persistent advocates of the war of 1812, was never during his 40 years of sub- sequent public service the adviser of any war whatever, but earnestly resisted every incite- ment to hostilities, and counselled the preser- vation of peace. " As a leader in a delibera-