my knowledge. I have no design to intermeddle with the Government, or to disturb the tranquillity of the United States, or of its Territories, or any part of them. I have neither issued, nor signed, nor promised a commission to any person, for any purpose. I do not own a musket, nor a bayonet, nor any single article of military stores, nor does any person for me, by my authority, or with my knowledge.

"My views have been fully explained to, and approved by, several of the principal officers of Government, and, I believe, are well understood by the administration, and seen by it with complacency. They are such as every man of honor, and every good citizen, must approve.

"Considering the high station you now fill in our national councils, I have thought these explanations proper, as well to counteract the chimerical tales, which malevolent persons have so industriously circulated, as to satisfy you that you have not espoused the cause of a man unfriendly to the laws, the Government, or the interests of his country."

CLAY was deceived by the apparent candor of Burr, and the heartiness of his disavowal. So pressing an application to a young lawyer, from one who had filled a highly distinguished place in the regards of his country, could not have been otherwise than flattering. He undertook the defense, but as the grand jury returned the indictment, accompanied with a refusal to consider it a true bill, he was absolved from any active part in the matter. Upon repairing to Washington he was shown evidence, which satisfied him, of the criminal intentions of Burr.

The endeavor was made to fasten odium upon CLAY, because of the part which he had assumed. In this attempt party malignity to some extent succeeded; but to us, who, at a distance, can look impartially upon the occurrences of that day, the eager endeavor of Burr to establish his innocence in the eyes of the young Senator, is all the vindication of his own integrity, which CLAY could wish.

We follow CLAY now to his seat in the Senate of the United States. It is not to bè supposed that, occupying it for but one

session, and feeling conscious of being one of the youngest members, he took a remarkably active part in the deliberations of that body. He found occasion, however, to advocate various plans for internal improvement.

His maiden speech was upon the construction of a bridge over the Potomac; a matter of local interest, but involving a question of constitutional power. He brought to the subject the results of extensive investigation, and his speech upon the occasion was esteemed equal to the fame which had preceded him.

His efforts were likewise directed to the construction of a canal in his own State, and improvements in the navigation of the Ohio River,-harbingers of the policy to which he was afterward committed, and by which no small degree of his great subsequent popularity was secured.

Upon returning to his friends, he was again elected to a seat in the State Legislature, and was made Speaker of its lower House. That he filled this office with dignity, it can not be necessary to assert, while his signal ability in a still higher station of the same character, is still a matter of memory.

In 1808, his friends, from a desire to match him against his principal political opponent, Humphrey Marshall, saw fit not to re-elect him Speaker. The debates assumed an acrimonious turn. Some offensive remarks, by Marshall, upon a resolution introduced by CLAY, to the effect that all the members should, for the sake of encouraging home industry, clothe themselves in garments of domestic manufacture, called forth a challenge from the latter. The parties met, exchanged two or three shots, were both slightly wounded, when, by the interference of their seconds, they were prevented from pursuing any further their murderous diversion.

One effort of HENRY CLAY, during his last connection with the State Legislature, deserves to be recorded forever to his credit. It was his valiant and successful opposition, almost single-handed, to a measure which prejudice and demagogism would have carried through, to the everlasting discredit of Kentucky. An unqualified hatred to England led to the strange proposal, that the decisions of her courts should never be cited

as precedents, nor allowed any weight at any Kentucky bar. Illiberality could not well go further. Yet so great was the unenlightened zeal of the Legislature, that its purpose was defeated only by the most strenuous efforts of CLAY, exerted through personal influence, through argument, and through the seductive power of his eloquence.

HENRY CLAY'S career, in the limited sphere of a State Legislature, we are now to see draw to a close. His talents are for wider fields and loftier displays. The skill which he has acquired, is to be transferred permanently to that arena where he can accomplish most for his country and for his race. But while we dismiss him from his narrower stage, we must show, from the testimony of one who knew how he there acquitted himself, that his success was not the result of accident; that by no "chance hits," and by no fitful efforts in these earlier years of discipline, was laid the foundation of the brilliant, useful, and enduring structure of his future fame.

"He appears," says the writer alluded to, "to have been the pervading spirit of the whole body. He never came to the debates without the knowledge necessary to the perfect elucidation of his subject, and he always had the power of making his knowledge so practical, and lighting it up so brightly with the fire of eloquence, and the living soul of intellect, that, without resorting to the arts of insidiousness, he could generally control the movements of the Legislature at will. His was not an undue influence; it was the simple ascendency of mind over mind. The bills, which originated with him, instead of being characterized by the eccentricities and ambitious innovations which are too often visible in the course of young men of genius, suddenly elevated to power and influence, were remarkable only for their plain common sense, and their tendency to advance the general interests of the State. Though he carried his plans into effect by the aid of the magical incantations of the orator, he always conceived them with the coolness and discretion of a philosopher. No subject was so great as to baffle his powers,-none so minute as to elude them. He could handle the telescope and the microscope with equal skill. In him, the

haughty demagogues of the Legislature found an antagonist, who never failed to foil them in their bold projects, and the intriguers of lower degree were baffled with equal certainty, whenever they attempted to get any petty measure through the House for their own personal gratification, or that of their friends. The people, therefore, justly regarded him as emphatically their own."

CHAPTER IV.

Senate of the United States again-Policy of our country-Mr. CLAY advocates protection of domestic manufactures —Opposes a United States Bank-His activity in bringing about a war with EnglandDeclaration of war.

MR. CLAY entered the Senate of the United States a second time, in the winter of 1809-10. So short had been the political history of our country, that no great systems, either of foreign or of domestic policy, had been established. The wants and capabilities of the country were hardly known. The course of legislation had been rather a series of experiments than any thing stable and definite. The political character of the nation was undergoing a formative process. The problem, whether Federal or Democratic principles should obtain the predominance, was hastening to a solution. Upon the result of this important question, hung suspended the future distinctive policy of the nation.

That problem, to all intents and purposes, was solved by the administration of Jefferson. The Democratic element then gained a predominance, which, except in a few fluctuations, it has ever since retained. Yet, while the prevailing spirit of the country may be characterized as the eager, restless, aggressive spirit of a Democracy, it is not of such a Democracy as floated before the vision of the early champions of State rights.

Federalism has not been annihilated, but absorbed. The country to-day, while it is more intensely democratic than it was fifty years ago, is also ruled more upon federal principles. While every year makes us a fiercer Democracy, every year also consolidates the power of the Central Government. Except in the instance of one or two States, the feeling of State pride is merging