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tion in your place; which, after being opened and read, was forthwith returned to Mr. Berrien, with a verbal intimation that Major Eaton would not receive it.

"This seems to close the door to all correspondence between the parties, and of course to any communication in reference to the original demand upon Mr. Berrien, between third persons, acting in their behalf. In Mr. Berrien's proffered answer to Major Eaton, he has taken his ground, and upon that, under existing circumstances, he must stand as firm and immoveable as he would upon any other that he might have elected. After the indignity of having the answer, which he had devised, thrown back upon his hands as unworthy of reply, without the slightest explanation how or why it was deemed inadmissible in limine, he cannot submit to the task of graduating new answers by an imaginary scale, till he may chance to have descended to some supposed degree of admissible answer. I was myself wholly unapprized of this unhappy affair till it was communicated to me this morning; when I engaged, in case you should take any further agency in the matter, to explain to you individually as a gentleman, what guarded respect to the original medium of communication between the parties, Mr. B. had observed in all that had been transacted during your absence, and how completely all direct and authorized intervention had been cut off, and the affair remitted to the discretion of mere parties. Such was the beginning, and such was the end of my present commission.

Copy of my answer to the foregoing letter, dated

"Dear General:

"Washington, August 2d, 1831.

"From your note of this morning, it appears that the matter, so far as you are concerned, as the friend of Mr. Berrien, is terminated; as the friend of Major Eaton I can, therefore, hold no further correspondence with you.

"I am, dear Sir, yours very truly,

"Alexander Hunter."

CHAPTER 23.

Funeral Oration by Honorable Ephraim H. Foster of Tennessee in the McKendree Church in Nashville, on the occasion, of the honoring of the obsequies of Henry Clay, July 28, 1852.

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CORRESPONDENCE.

"Nashville, July 29th, 1852.

"To the Hon. Ephraim H. Foster:

"Dear Sir: The general Committee of Arrangements, appointed by the Citizens of Nashville, to prepare the Obsequies of Henry Clay, have directed the undersigned to solicit for publication a copy of your very eloquent Oration upon that occasion. Hoping that it may be agreeable to you to gratify the wishes of your numerous friends by a compliance with this request,

"We have the honor to subscribe ourselves,

"Your very obedient servants,
"John Hu. Smith,

"Ro. G. Smiley,

"Jno. A. McEwen,

"Committee.

"Nashville, July 29th, 1852. "To Messrs. John Hugh Smith, Ro. G. Smiley, John A. McEwen, Committee.

"Gentlemen: I have received your polite note of this morning, requesting me to furnish you for publication a copy of the Oration delivered on the occasion of the Obsequies of the Hon. Henry Clay; and with pleasure herewith hand a copy of the same for that purpose.

"Be pleased to accept my grateful acknowledgements for the kind and complimentary terms you speak of it. At the same time, I fear that the judgment of the public will not be as favorable as

your own.

"I have the honor to remain,

"Very faithfully, your obedient serv't.
"E. H. Foster."

FUNERAL ORATION.

"The emblems of mourning that hang in deep and studied festoons around this sacred desk, the anxious and attentive gaze of so many silent eyes, and the solemn stillness that pervades these consecrated walls, all proclaim the sorrow that penetrates every

heart in this vast assembly. The angel of death has been in our midst. He has struck in our high places. A great man has fallen, and we come together, on a day set apart and dedicated to his memory, to manifest our grief. Henry Clay is no more. In the ripeness of old age, but more crowned with honors and renown than he was blessed with lengthened years, he has been gathered to the fathers. He sleeps in the noiseless tomb, and we shall see him no more, forever, in the glory and the brightness of his long and shining career.

"And who will say that his departure-late as it was-so natural in the course of time and so much to be expected-is not a national loss! Or friend or foe, who, in this hour of our sadness, can refuse to join in a parting tribute to the recollection of a patriot whose fame has reached the utmost borders of civilization, and whose imperishable name will be chronicled in all time to come, in the proudest annals of the Republic?

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And now that he has passed to his great account, it is good to dwell on such a man, and, in the hour of these funeral rites, to repeat the story of his deeds and recount some of the great actions that have distinguished and immortalized his life.

"The illustrious citizen whose loss we now so deeply deplore, was born in the ancient commonwealth of Virginia in the month of April, 1777. He was of poor, but virtuous and reputable parentage, and under the pressure of that inherited destitution which so often nerves and spirits a noble and generous ambition, he was-like most others of his great compeers, the living and the dead, whose characters already illuminate and adorn the short but brilliant page of our national progress-the architect of his own fortunes: and from the most humble and unpromising beginnings, ascended the 'high estate' which signalized his life and has finally given him an historic name. The 'Mill Boy of the Slashes'-such was the homely soubriquet of his youthful days-deprived, in early boyhood, of the provident care of a good father, was necessarily consigned to the culture and protection of an indigent but exemplary mother, and opened his horn book for the first time, in a school house 'made of crib-logs, with no floor, but the earth, the entrance -serving for door, window and air-being always open.' Under these lean and unfavorable auspices, and without ever afterwards having had the advantage of any higher source of tuition, he began and ended his literary pupilage, and was, at the tender age of fifteen, transferred thence to a mercantile counter in the City of Richmond, and, at the end of another year, to a lower clerkship in the high court of chancery of Virginia.

"A faithful representation, up to this time, of the person and the appearance of the obscure lad who was destined, in the fullness of his days to command the united confidence and applause of an admiring people, would unfold a picture at which a cynic might smile, and which, in the moral it forcibly teaches, should excite the 'high hopes' of all the poor and unwashed children who swarm in

the low log cabins of this equal, free and happy land. The future statesmen and orator-he, on whose patriotic and burning lips a listening senate has so often hung in delight and veneration, and whose mighty voice, warmed by the most pure and lofty inspirations, so frequently afterwards invoked the genius of liberty in our public councils, or called back the nation to a knowledge of its true and best interests-was, in his youthful days, awkard and ungainly in person and deportment, and might then be seen at any summer's sunrise-half clad, uncovered and unshod-bounding along in a merry gambol of innocent and thoughtless boyhood, heading a juvenile chase after the small game of the adjoining woods, or, tricked off with the home made satchel that contained his book and his coarse and scanty mid-day meal, trudging to the school house, all full of morning joy and gay and sportive as the wild birds that caroled in the forest around him.

"Such were the first prospects and such the early promise of a hapless lad, who, on the proof of his own words, 'never recognized a father's smile, nor felt his caresses,' and who, with all his unrivalled latent powers-'poor and penniless, without the favor of the great and with an imperfect and inadequate education,' but for the timely interposition of a few generous friends, might have gone, with the million who had preceded him,' unwept, unhonored and unsung' to an obscure or an ignoble grave-for so, indeed, it has often happened, that genius, repressed by 'chill penury', or fatally blighted by the ignorance or the cold indifference of an envious and self seeking world, has been doomed to lead an inglorious life and disappear forever, without leaving a solitary trophy behind to commemorate its hard fought battles, its victories, and the extent and immortality of its conquests.

"Most happy, however, for the American people and for the lamented dead whose obsequies we now celebrate, the grateful patronage that kindly removed him from his humble and unnoted birth place to the ancient capital of his native State, rescued his name from oblivion and laid the foundations, broad and deep, of the brilliant fortunes he afterwards achieved.

"At the immediate time of his auspicious advent into Richmond, the great destined statesman was, we are told, indifferently advanced in the most common country education of his day. He was provincial too, and unrefined in his manners, and clad in domestic garments of uncouth cut and texture. They were the best, no question, and the most genteel that the loom and the hands of the good mother of the "Slashes" could fabricate and fashion: but they figured strangely in the streets and saloons of a polished metropolis, and made the awkard lad who wore them, a rare and fit subject for the jests and criticisms of his youthful associates. A short acquaintance however, with the high merits and the true worth of the rustic of Hanover, quickly turned ridicule into respect and admiration; and it was not long before those who were the first to laugh at, were the first to honor and applaud him. The

artless and unsophisticated 'new comer' they soon discovered, was willing, apt and vigilant in service-he was virtuous-he was industrious and steady in his habits and with all, he manifested superior capacity and an extraordinary rapidity of perception, and could with little instruction and as little practice, master and accurately execute and dispatch any branch of office business to which he was detailed. He delighted, too, in days of labor and nights of reading and contemplation; and accordingly his idle and pleasure hunting companions, returning at a late hour from their accustomed revels, always found him seated, where they had left him, attentively engaged in some favorite study.

"What wonder then that a great chancellor-the learned and illustrious preceptor of Jefferson-whose duties led him frequently to the apartments of his clerk, should become acquainted with the extraordinary mental endowments and the rare worth of the favorite of his official household. What wonder that this clerk, at the earnest request of the good chancellor, should transfer his excellent and trusty subordinate to the former as his copyist, his confidential friend and his associate in the manual labors of his station. What wonder, indeed, that this venerable and afflicted Judge-full of benevolence as he was of wisdom and knowledge, and always the patron and adviser of virtuous and aspiring youth-charmed with the industry and capacity of his destitute and talented assistant, should take him by the hand, point him to the high summit whence flowed wealth and fame, and nobly volunteer to aid, direct and guide his footsteps in an attempt to make the rugged and dangerous ascent. And in this generous offer, the future destiny and the bright fortunes of this promising young scribe were securely sealed. He entered eagerly on the study of the law, and having in due season completed his forensic education, he removed, before the close of his twenty-first year, to the State of Kentucky, and commenced his professional career in a town to which his great name and his residence have imparted national immortality-for, Lexington, so long honored by his presence, and, by his own beautiful Ashland-now another Monticello in the West-cultivated and adorned by his taste and his labors, and finally hallowed by the ashes of its illustrious lord, shall live in history and in song, and be visited by pilgrim patriots until the American people shall cease to imitate the virtues of their heroic sires, and grow weary of that freedom for which they expended so much blood and treasure, and for the possession of which so many millions now mourn in hopeless and heavy chains of bondage and captivity.

"We need not dwell on the professional progress and the rapid rise of our ambitious beginner. His acquirements, the practical powers of his mind, and his intellectual capacity bore their rich fruits, and the young stranger, who-penniless and friendless-had courageously taken his seat 'in the midst of a bar uncommonly distinguished by eminent members,' and who has himself recorded. the joy and delight with which he received his first 'fifteen shilling

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