ject, are considered. It is a link that unites affections more than fifty years asunder in the dates of their existence. It is natural to feel that she must have been a good mother, that was loved and so dutifully served by such a boy, and that neither could have been wanting in rare virtues, that should be so remembered after the lapse of half a century, by one who had been separated from them not less by space than time. The spectacle of that boy, working barefooted for his mother and her orphan children, anticipating the duties of senior members of the family, and keeping his eye on the meal-barrel, to see that it fails not, touches all hearts; and when, in riper years, he is seen toiling through a like career for his country, the common mother of a whole people, one is not surprised, though he may be filled with admiration; for the two spheres are kindred to each other. In serving his country, he only obeys the instincts and fulfils the high destiny of his filial piety.

After a year's study of the law with Attorney-General Brooke, who had been governor of the state, Mr. Clay was admitted to practice, in 1797, by the Virginia court of appeals. That high finish of intellectual character, and those rich treasures of practical information, for which Mr. Clay has always been distinguished, had their foundation, no doubt, in that course of culture and discipline, and in those severe studies and patient researches, into which he was put by Chancellor Wythe, and which were followed up under Attorney-General Brooke. The rich fruits, however, were indebted to the soil as well as to the hand that trained them. A mind intent on knowledge, and loving knowledge, not only for its own sake, but for its uses, needs but an index, the key, and the opportunity. It is true that the limits of Mr. Clay's education were somewhat circumscribed as to time; but the aids he enjoyed were of the highest order, the resources abundant, and he was enticed to effort and stimulated to application, not less by the seductive kindness of those who took an interest in him, than by the strong impulses of his own disposition. Time is a deceptive measure of acquirements in knowledge. It is facility, motive, talent, and help the charm of the occupation, and the delights of circumstances. In the case of Henry Clay, the pupil was a genius, and the master a Mentor. It is rare that young men enter upon professional life with such rich and various information, and with so fixed a habit of correct observation-Mr. Clay's own deprecatory allusions, here and there, to the disadvantages and inadequacy of

his early education to the contrary notwithstanding. Though it is natural to respect such modest pretensions, it is not incumbent on the public to take the unpretending character of superior virtue as the measure of its claims.

It is still remembered by those who knew Henry Clay at Richmond, that he became a universal favorite among his superiors, for his respectful deportment and inquiring mind; among equals, because they loved and were proud of him; among children, because of his benevolent attentions; and in general society, for the purity of his character, and his excellent and fascinating manners. He left behind him a name to be envied, and the highest expectations of his future eminence He removed to Lexington, Kentucky, in November, 1797, to establish himself in the profession of the law, being then not quite twenty-one years of age.

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His pecuniary circumstances at that time, as might be supposed from his previous history, were anything but comfortable. He was pennyless. The following brief and touching review of his early history was given by himself, in a speech at Lexington, June 6, 1842, at an entertainment in honor of him, by his old friends and neighbors, on the occasion of his retirement from public life: "In looking back upon my origin and progress through life, I have great reason to be thankful. My father died in 1781, leaving me an infant of too tender years to retain any recollection of his smiles or endearments. My surviving parent removed to this state in 1792, leaving me, a boy of fifteen years of age, in the office of the high court of chancery, in the city of Richmond, without guardian, without pecuniary means of support, to steer my course as I might or could. A neglected education was improved by my own irregular exertions, without the benefit of systematic instruction. I studied law principally in the office of a lamented friend, the late Governor Brooke, then attorney-general of Virginia, and also under the auspices of the venerable and lamented Chancellor Wythe, for whom I had acted as amanuensis. I obtained a license to practise the profession, from the judges of the court of appeals of Virginia, and established myself in Lexington, in 1797, without patrons, without the favor or countenance of the great or opulent, without the means of paying my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar uncommonly distinguished by eminent members. I remember how comfortable I thought I should be if I could make one hundred pounds, Virginia money, per year, and with what delight I received the first fifteen shillings

fee. My hopes were more than realized. I immediately rushed into a successful and lucrative practice."

Some," says the bard of Avon, "are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." The first, certainly, was not the lot of Henry Clay. Neither have his opponents been very eager to thrust greatness upon him, however they may have contributed to that end. All the distinction he has acquired, was achieved achieved by his own lofty aims, and by his single arm. Men are disposed to honor him who, by his own inherent vigor and high aspirations, has successfully encountered obstacles that would dispirit ordinary minds, and who has baffled, in an honorable career, the adverse winds of unhopeful birth and fortune. In the blood and on the graves of the founders of the American republic, themselves martyrs to freedom, was laid a platform for such endeavors. On this, their descendants, though wanting the adventitious aids of a family escutcheon and entailed estates, may build high hopes, and earn an imperishable fame.

Born and cradled in the agonies of the American revolution, Henry Clay seems to have been destined by Providence to sympathize with its great principles of freedom, and to be the leading champion of human rights for the age in which he has lived. It is natural and not unphilosophical to suppose, more especially as it coincides with their reputed character, that the feelings of his parents, in view of British despotism over the colonies at that period of strife and blood, were imparted to the temperament of a son, who has ever shown himself so susceptible of hate to tyrants, and so prone to the love of liberty.

CHAPTER II.

Mr. Clay's Domestic Relations.-His Marriage.-His Children.-His Domestic Afflictions.-His Domestic Character.-His Character as a Master, Neighbor, Citizen, and Man of Feeling.-Ashland and its Hospitalities.-Mr. Clay's Estate and Pecuniary Condition.

IN April, 1799, about a year and a half after Mr. Clay removed to Kentucky, he married Lucretia Hart, daughter of Colonel Thomas Hart, a gentleman of high standing in Lexington, and famed for his enterprise, public spirit, and hospitality. Another of Colonel Hart's daughters was married to James Brown, Esq., at that time in the practice of law at Lexington, who afterward removed to New Orleans, acquired a large fortune by his profession, was elected to the senate of the United States, afterward sent as minister to France by Mr. Monroe, and continued under Mr. J. Q. Adams.

Mrs. Clay was born in 1781, at Hagerstown, Maryland, being four years younger than her husband. They have had eleven children, six daughters and five sons, and in 1845 had fifteen grandchildren. Their first child, a daughter, born in 1800, and their ninth, also a daughter, born in 1816, died in infancy. Two other daughters, Lucretia Hart, born in 1809, and Eliza Hart, born in 1813, died at the interesting age of fourteen, both heavy domestic afflictions. The first of these died at Ashland, when both parents were at home, and followed her to the grave. She had been a feeble child, but much beloved, and was more tenderly regarded on account of her frailty. But the circumstances of Eliza's death were peculiarly distressing. She had been a blushing flower, of amiable and buoyant temper captivating in her ways, and was cherished with much fond hope. With every prospect of life and happiness, she left Ashland with her parents, in the spring of 1825, when Mr. Clay was proceeding with his family, to his post at Washington, as secretary of state, under Mr. Adams. Eliza was taken sick at Cincinnati. After a day or two, however, she was pronounced able to proceed; but at Lebanon

they were arrested by new and alarming symptoms. Mr. Clay was obliged to leave them behind, and proceed to Washington, with the news of Eliza's sudden death following after him. This painful intelligence reached him in nine days. "Woes love a train." The next day after this shock, the post from the south, announced the death of another much-loved daughter, Susan Hart, then Mrs. Duralde, of New Orleans, at the age of twenty. Ann Brown Clay, born in 1807, who married Mr. James Erwine, of New Orleans, is represented to have been more like her father, than any of the children, in the development of her intellectual, moral, and social qualities. All agree, that she was a lady of rare accomplishments and brilliancy-a model of female excellence, as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend-admired and loved, adorning society not less than the domestic circle. Her husband had purchased an estate adjoining Ashland, as a summer retreat for his family, establishing, when it was occupied, a daily round of intercourse with her father and his family, till death, in 1835, just ten years after the former bereavements, suddenly dissolved the ties so strongly uniting parent and child, husband and wife, and a circle of endeared connexions. She expired in the presence of her family, without notice or alarm, or any sign of the approach of death. Her father was at Washing ton. Senator Porter, of Louisiana, an intimate friend, was with him, when he broke the seal of the letter conveying this intelligence. Mr. Clay fainted. No event of his life has ever affected him so deeply, nor has time been able to heal the wound. Mr. Clay kept his room many days, after the receipt of this intelligence, and when urgently called out by the demands of public duty, the senate, aware of the cause of his absence, manifested deep sympathy, when he rose, and opened his speech with the following sentence: "Although I feel myself borne down by the severest affliction, with which Providence has ever been pleased to visit me, I have thought, that my private griefs ought not longer to prevent me from attempting, ill as I feel qualified, to discharge my public duties." Some time after this event, he had occasion, while pleading a cause in court at Frankfort, Kentucky, incidentally to use the expression, "the vicissitudes of human life," in allusion to domestic afflictions, when he instantly stopped, overpowered with emotion, and sat down to give vent to his feelings. The court, jury, and all present, were utterly unable to account for it, till being composed, and rising to apologize, he was com