Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by WM. A. CLARKE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of Ohio. STEREOTYPED BY D. HILLS & CO., 141 Main St., Cincinnati. 16 Dec. '21 g. Marshall B PREFACE. THE object of the present work is two-fold. First, to present in a condensed form a complete Life, and the most important Speeches of Henry Clay; and secondly, to collect, in a form adapted to their preservation, the Eulogies called forth by the death of the great statesman, together with an account of the Obsequies attending his burial. In respect to the first object, it may be said, that the field has already been occupied. In reply, we say that, although the works which have appeared from time to time, and especially the large volumes of Colton, have given us nearly all the information which we can hope to obtain, whether in regard to the public or private life of HENRY CLAY, yet that they all, and especially those which we have designated, labor under the disadvantage of being too large and too costly for popular circulation. Now, such was the affectionate admiration with which HENRY CLAY was regarded, while living, that we believe thousands will hail with satisfaction the appearance of a volume like this, in which it has been the aim to unite 467541 accuracy in the statement of facts, with a clear delineation of the marked features of CLAY's public and private character. The Biographic part claims, moreover, to be something more than a mere abridgment or compilation. It aspires to the dignity of an original portraiture. In the Selections from CLAY's speeches, the rule observed was this; to present the political opinions of the great leader in his own words, rendering him, thus, as far as possible, the author of his own political biography. To this end, extracts have been made to convey, not always so much an impression of the beauty and force of his diction, as of the peculiar sentiments which he entertained, the form in which he held them, and the arguments with which he defended them. They have been arranged with express reference to their biographic value. In regard to the contents of the latter part of the volume, we need only say, that they can not but have a value while the memory of HENRY CLAY shall live, as indicating the mode in which a mighty nation gave expression to its grief, at the loss of its favorite son. The volume then as a whole, we trust, will vindicate its pretensions, notwithstanding defects which, doubtless, exist in it, to be considered truly a monument to the memory of HENRY CLAY. PARIS, KENTUCKY March 1, 1857. |