CHAPTER X.

Henry Clay, Sketch of his Life-John Breckinridge, Sketch of Mrs. Breckinridge-George Nicholas, Sketch of-Chilton Allan-Samuel HansonJoseph H. Daviess-Richard C. Anderson, Jr.—Wm. T. Barry—Solomon P. Sharp-George M. Bibb-Humphrey Marshall-Jesse Bledsoe-Harry Innis-George Robertson-John Speed Smith-John B. Thurston -- David Trimble-John White-Henry Grider-James Harlan-Judge William McClung-Alexander D. Orr-John Coburn-John T. Johnson-Robert P. Henry-Thomas Chilton-James B. Clay-Thomas Corwin-Martin D. Hardin-James S. Jackson-Wm. P. Duval-Joshua H. Jewett-Francis Johnson-Sherrod Williams-Elijah Hise-James Guthrie-John Boyle-Daniel Breck-F. M. Bristow-Presley Ewing-Henry C. Burnett Thomas J. Helm-Joshua F. Bell-John Calhoon-Beverly L. Clark-Albert G. Haws-James Love-Richard H. Menifee-Stephen Ormsby-Wm. Wright Southgate-General Leslie Combs-William J. Graves-Archibald Dixon-Thomas P. Moore-Richard French-Benjamin Tobin-General Samuel Hopkins-Captain William Hubbell-General Jefferson Davis-President Abraham Lincoln-William MitchellColonel Acquilla Whitaker-James S. Whitaker-Richard T. Whitaker -Christopher Graham, M. D.

HENRY CLAY.

The life, letters, and speeches of Henry Clay have been published in several volumes, and are in the hands of many. Scarcely any man ever attained higher distinction than he, not only as a civilian, but as a statesman, orator, diplomatist, and patriot. His fame was wide-spread and unbounded; not a civilized nation on earth, perhaps, to whom his fame was unknown. An honester man, or one more devoted to the best interest of his country, perhaps never lived. Born with no other heritage than poverty, he attained that distinction to which he arrived by the force of his own talents alone; his native genius, assisted by the ardor of his exertions, effected it; and the malice of his enemies could never tear it from him, nor even blot the page of that history which records it. 236

Mr. Clay had only received a common school education when he entered the office of the clerk of the court of Chancery at Richmond as a copyist. He commenced the study of the law at nineteen years of age, and shortly afterward removed to Lexington, Kentucky.

Mr. Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on the 12th of April, 1777. He was admitted to the bar at Lexington in 1799, and very soon obtained an extensive practice. He began his political career by taking an active part in the election of delegates to frame a new Constitution for Kentucky in 1799. He was elected a Representative of Fayette County to the Legislature of Kentucky for the first time in 1803, and in 1806 was appointed the successor of General John Adair, who had resigned, to the Senate of the United States for the remainder of the term. In 1807 he was again elected to the Legislature of Kentucky, and was chosen Speaker. It was in 1808 that the duel occurred between him and Humphrey Marshall. In 1809 he was again elected to the United States Senate for the unexpired term of Mr. Thurston, resigned. In 1811 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in Congress, and was chosen Speaker of that body, and was five times re-elected in that body to the same office. He was an advocate of the war with Great Britain; and the national spirit was greatly aroused and awakened to resist her aggressions by his eloquence. In 1814 he was appointed one of the Commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace at Ghent. After his return from this mission he was again elected to Congress, and in 1818 delivered his famous speech on the subject of recognizing the independence of the South American Republics. It was this year also that he advocated with such power the national system of internal improvements. A monument of stone, inscribed with his name, was erected on the National Road to commemorate his services in behalf of that improvement.

In 1819-20 he exerted himself for the establishment of protection of American industry. He also rendered essential services in the adjustment of the Missouri Compromise question. These questions being settled, he retired from Congress to at

tend to his private affairs. In 1823 he was again elected to Congress, and re-elected Speaker. It was during this session he exerted himself in support of the independence of Greece. He was Secretary of State under the Presidency of John Quincy Adams. The attack made by John Randolph on Mr. Clay during this administration led to the duel between these distinguished men, which terminated, however, without bloodshed.

In 1831 Mr. Clay was again elected to the United States Senate, where he commenced his labors in favor of the tariff. Soon after his re appearance in the Senate he was unanimously nominated for President of the United States, but was defeated by the re-election of General Jackson. In 1836 he was again elected to the United States Senate, where he remained until 1842, when he resigned, and took his final leave of that body as he supposed.

In 1839 he was before the Convention again for the nomination for the Presidency, when General Harrison was selected as the candidate, who was elected over Van Buren by an overwhelming majority. In 1844 he again received the nomination for President, but was defeated by the election of James K. Polk.

After this he remained in retirement until 1849, when he was again elected to the Senate of the United States, where he devoted all his energies to the measures known as the Compromise Acts. His efforts during this session greatly impaired his strength and health, and he went to New Orleans and Havana, but received no permanent improvement in this respect, and returned to Congress. Being unable to participate in the active duties of the Senate, he resigned his seat, to take effect upon the 6th of September, 1852.

Mr. Clay was greatly interested in the success of the Colonization Society, and was for a long time one of its most efficient officers, and also its President. He died at Washington City, June 29th, 1852, at a little over seventy-five years of age, honored and respected not only by his own country, but by the civilized nations of the earth.

JOHN BRECKINRIDGE.

John Breckinridge was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of Kentucky, and his name is intimately connected with its history. He was born in Augusta County, Virginia, adjoining the town of Staunton, on the 2d day of December, 1760. His ancestors came from Ireland, and early in the last century to Virginia, and were of what was called the Scotch-Irish descent. His grandfathers, on both his father's and mother's side, lie buried in Tinkling Spring Cemetery, Augusta County, Virginia. His father died in Bottetourt County, Virginia, whither he removed when the subject of this sketch was only eleven years old.

Mr. Breckinridge was highly educated, without other aid than books, except about two years spent at the college of William and Mary in Virginia. He quit this college at about nineteen years of age, and was immediately elected a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia from Bottetourt County, without any knowledge on his part of what was in agitation. On account of his youth his election was twice set aside, and it was only on the third return, and that, too, against his remonstrances, that he took his seat. From this period to his death he lived only as a lawyer and a statesman.

His wife was Mary Hopkins Cabell, of Buckingham County, Virginia, whom he married in 1785, and settled in Albemarle, where he practiced law until 1793. In the spring of that year he removed to Kentucky, and settled in Lexington, near to which place, at "Cabell's Dale," he resided till his death, which occurred the 14th of December, 1806, having just completed his forty-sixth year.

Mr. Breckinridge was regarded as profoundly learned as a lawyer, and highly gifted as a public speaker. He was honest in all his engagements, and exact in all his professional duties. His private character was without reproach; and he eminently deserved the distinction which he attained. He attained great popularity, and had a most controlling influence in every deliberative body in which he was at any time a participant. He occupied a commanding position as a statesman the greater part of his life, and took part in all the great questions of the

day, whether of a local or public nature. The Constitution of 1799 was more the work of his hands than of any other single man, and the molding of the most important laws of the Commonwealth, which stand upon our statute book to this day, were mainly the labor of his hand. He was in his day the leading statesman in all the West, and the acknowledged leader of the old Democratic party which came into power with Jefferson, of whom Mr. Breckinridge was a devoted friend, both personally and politically, and held the office of Attorney General under his administration. The famed resolutions of 1798, asserting the principles of the Democratic party, and making the first great movement against the alien and sedition laws, were the production of his hands. Several of Mr. Breckinridge's sons arrived at great distinction in the community-Robert C. Breckinridge as a Presbyterian divine, and John Cabell Breckinridge as an eminent lawyer. The latter was the father of the distinguished John C. Breckinridge, late Vice President of the United States, afterward elected to the United States Senate, and in the war of the rebellion of 1861 took a leading part as a Confederate general.

The subject of this sketch is said to have been of very noble appearance, tall, slender, and muscular, with gray eyes and brown hair; grave and silent in ordinary intercourse, but courteous and gentle in his manners, and greatly beloved by all who ever knew him.

GEORGE NICHOLAS.

George Nicholas, an eminent lawyer of Virginia, came to Kentucky just before she was admitted into the Union as a sovereign State, and was one of the most prominent members of the Convention which formed the first Constitution of Kentucky. He was a colonel for some years during the Revolutionary War. Previous to his emigration to Kentucky he was a very prominent member of the Virginia Convention, and was a zealous advocate for the adoption of the Federal Constitution. He had the confidence of the people of Kentucky in an eminent degree, and influenced to a considerable