the service of that dominant interest, and prompt to subordinate all the principles of our constitution and all the power of the nation to the one end of confirming and perpetuating where it now exists, and of planting and protecting where hitherto it has not existed, the system of African slavery.

I do not stop to depict slavery as it exists, or its effects, as it is ever evolving itself in the slaveholding States. As child and youth, and since then as preacher and teacher, I have spent twenty-six years of my life in a slave state; and I know from close observation, what slavery is, in its essential elements, and what its bitter fruit is, first in its degrading influence on the colored race, and then in its dreadful reaction on the whites, particularly on the male portion of them. Yet pleasant memories of my youthful associations not unfrequently come over me; I am mindful that the garnered dust of three generations of my maternal ancestors rest in quiet and safe repose in Southern soil; and I know that I am not disposed to feel unkindly or to speak harshly of the South or of Southern people. But I do not hesitate to say, that I regard these acts of violence upon individuals, and of aggression upon Kansas, and of fierce determination and despotism in regard to the maintenance and extension of slavery, to which reference has been made, as the legitimate fruit of the system of slavery; and that such results are to be expected as a matter of course, whenever that system may acquire an ascendant and protracted prevalence. And I do not hesitate further to affirm my conviction. that the most enormous organic, legalized, national iniquity, which the sun of the nineteenth century looks down upon in any Christian land, is African slavery in these United States.

And now if it shall come to pass, that the government and the power of this great nation must be finally committed and devoted to the work of defending and diffusing slavery, and of making it an unrestricted and perpetual institution upon our soil, that, I hesitate not to say, will be the climax of abominations in the land.

Israel of old was brought out of Egypt, and established as a separate and conspicuous nation, for the leading purpose, that she might by example and by inculcation, maintain the recognition and worship of the one living and true God, against all idolatry. When, as a nation, she fell into idolatry, that was a culmination of iniquity, which could not be overlooked by the God of Heaven. The terrible destruction referred to in that passage of the prophet, which we have been examining, came as the consequence and penalty of that defection.

Not less designedly on the part of our fathers, and with providential indications of the will of God to that effect, scarcely less marked than those which attended the nationalizing of Israel, did this Republic acquire its civil existence, for the leading purpose, that as a nation, she might promote justice, establish freedom, maintain the rights of man, and be the home of civil and religious liberty; and should she prove recreant to her high mission, betray this trust for humanity, and commit herself, with the position and the power which God has given her, to the work of defending and diffusing slavery, that verily will be a national defection second only to Israel's defection from the living God, and cannot fail to bring down upon her a no less fearful overthrow than that in which the vengeance of God was executed against his ancient covenant people.

And now these acts of violence which have been spoken of, these manifestations of the spirit of domination and despotism, these fearful strides which we, as a nation, are taking, this dread approximation to the position of being committed and devoted to the work of defending and diffusing slavery-all are before God. They are going upon the record of our nation's deeds and influence, which stands ever in his sight, and which he looks to in determining our desert and destiny as a nation. They are appealing to his justice for retribution, and are hastening the day of his consuming vengeance. Verily then, it is a time for sighing and crying over the abominations which are done in the land, and for the doing by every man, of whatever it may be in his power to do, to reform the nation from its iniquities, and to avert the indignation of the God of heaven.

ART. V. THE LAST SEVEN YEARS OF THE LIFE OF
HENRY CLAY.

The Last Seven Years of the Life of Henry Clay. By CALVIN COLTON, LL. D., Professor of Public Economy, Trinity College. [Hartford, Connecticut.] New York: Published by A. S. Barnes & Co., 51 and 53 John Street. 1856.

THE author of this book has been long and favorably known to the best part of the reading public by his writings on various and widely different subjects. Without being liable to the imputation of versatility of genius or taste, his literary works have been diversified as well as numerous. So much the better for the task which he took in hand when he began the work now before us, and which he has faithfully executed, not only to the best of his unquestioned ability, but to the full extent of the capability of his subject. Sincere and earnest in his efforts to ascertain the truth, industrious and patient in his investigations of it, he has been proportionally successful in the expression of it on this occasion. He came to this enterprise, in the possession of extraordinary advantages and opportunities well improved. His personal knowledge of many of the events which he narrates, and his intimate association with those who performed the greatest parts in these transactions, have fitted him to make this volume what it is-a valuable contribution to our contemporaneous political history, and one quite essential to the completeness and the preservation of our knowledge of the times and of the country in which we live, and have lived. He has herein furnished important materials to the future historian of the events of this age. As a simple and faithful annalist, he could have done that. He has done much more, in the unconscious fidelity with which he has in this, (and preceding works constituting a series of which this is a necessary part and the proper conclusion,) both represented and exemplified the impassioned admiration and devoted affection which that extraordinary man so widely and deeply inspired.

Such partiality, far from impairing, enhances the value of this historic testimony. The author's fidelity and competency being conceded, he instructs by sure facts, which he illustrates by inferences and comments, also instructive and interesting, though they cannot and will not be adopted by all his most intelligent readers.

HENRY CLAY Possessed and exercised an influence over not only the opinions but the affections of his countrymen, difficult to explain even now, and likely to be more difficult, perhaps puzzling, to those who may read or write of these things thirty years hence, if a sufficient interest in them prevail so long. His influence, for good and evil, was great, and was energetically, effectively exerted, in both directions, on the men, especially on the young and patriotically hopeful men, of his time. The manifest purpose and confessed object of this volume isnot only the eulogization of Mr. Clay, but a defense of his conduct in public affairs during the last seven years of his life -a defense of what has not been attacked, and which no one has cared about enough to feel provoked to make an attack on it.

Our case is not wholly and exactly parallel to that of the Lacedemonian who was invited to hear the delivery of a panegyric on Hercules, and who in reply, exclaimed-On Hercu les! Why? Who ever thought of blaming Hercules ?" The gross animal preeminence of the semi-fabulous personification. of classic or barbarous heroism was nearer to the Spartan's beau-ideal of human perfection than Henry Clay is to what the intelligent portion of his countrymen would regard as a model of wisdom and goodness, or to their standard of attainable excellence in statesmanship and policy. But the inquiry now naturally suggested, on the presentation of this bulky and elaborate defense of Mr. Clay's supplementary course as a politician after what was justly deemed the close of his public and official career, is-Who has published or uttered anything in condemnation or censure of the man since his death? His foes having not only ceased to denounce him but actually contradicted and very generally retracted their former abuse, why not leave the disputable points of the latest portions of his history to the willingly charitable judgments or silence of his countrymen, both of the present and following generations? No man ever had a more liberal allowance of praise while alive and immediately after death; and in view of that, it is not very wise or well-timed to force upon public notice a vindicatory biography of him, demanding criticism, as this certainly does. Mr. Clay's friends have enjoyed unbounded and unchecked license in their posthumous commendations and eulogies of him, it being of course understood that the interests of his country and the characters of his survivors should not be unjustly sacrificed to give an unnatural splendor to the already profuse and extravagant honors rendered to the unquestionably illustrious dead. Justice to the living, and the establishment of the truth of his

tory require of us an examination of such opinions and comments on facts in Mr. Clay's history, as are set forth in this volume.

The first chapter begins with a "Retrospect" of some of the events of 1844, and refers to the accomplishment of Mr. Clay's predictions as to the annexation of Texas and the consequences of that act. It gives also a minutely detailed description of the complimentary visit to Ashland by the Kentucky Presidential electors of that year, immediately after casting their votes for Clay and Frelinghuysen. The account of the interview forcibly suggests two reflections. How deeply that sad defeat impressed the hearts of Mr. Clay's patriotic friends with sympathy for his personal disappointment in view of the humiliating prostration of the over-confident hopes with which he and they had looked forward to the anticipated triumph! And how willingly, under the influence of that sympathy, they forgot or overlooked, at the time, the very large and essential part he himself had borne in the production of the result! And this kindly oblivious feeling was simultaneously prevalent among those who most deplored the consequences of his egregious folly, all over the Union. There was not one sensible, observant man among them all, who could not trace the defeat of Mr. Clay and the Whig party to the natural and necessary influence of the idly discursive and exceedingly silly letters written by him for publication during the summer and autumn of that year,-written in contemptuous disregard of the unanimous and urgent expostulations of those who were then disinterestedly lavishing their labor, time and means for his election. In the final result, it became evident that a change of about 2600 votes from the successful candidate to him would have given him the electoral ballots of New York, and would have made him PRESIDENT. In the same State, 15,000 votes were thrown away on electors pledged to a hopeless anti-slavery ballot for J. G. Birney. Two-thirds of these (as was proved four years after) could have been secured to a whig slaveholder in the position occupied by Mr. Clay when he received the unanimous nomination of the National Convention at Baltimore, May 1st, 1844. Maine and Indiana were probably as needlessly lost by the same unparalleled and inexcusable folly. Even Mr. Clay himself would have been compelled to admit this, if any person had been cruel enough to extort from him then any opinion on the point. His letters to Alabama and Georgia on Texas-annexation and the tariff, wholly unnecessary as they were for the information of any one as to his views on those subjects, although they did not absolutely contradict the plain declarations previously made by 36

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