[IN the following brief speech, delivered at a public dinner,
given to him by his fellow-citizens of Lexington, Kentucky,
after his return from the negotiation of a treaty of peace, at
Ghent, Mr. Clay takes a summary view of the results of the war
with Great Britain, and the benefits which the United States,
as a nation, had gained by that contest with a gigantic foe,
triumphant at last in all her European wars. His allusions to
the discussions at Ghent, and the proud and dignified attitude
assumed and maintained by our commissioners, on that occasion,
will be read with interest, while his views of the bright
prospects opened to our country by the peace, have been verified
by subsequent national prosperity, particularly when the
measures of public policy advocated and recommended by Mr. Clay
have been adopted.
The sixth toast was:
‘Our able negotiators at Ghent. Their talents for diplomacy have
kept pace with the valor of our arms, in ‘demonstrating’ to the
enemy, that these states will be free.’
This toast was received with loud and repeated cheering. After
it had subsided Mr. Clay addressed the assembly as follows.
I FEEL myself called on, by the sentiment just expressed, to return my
thanks, in behalf of my colleagues and myself. I do not, and am quite
sure they do not, feel, that, in the service alluded to, they are at
all entitled to the compliment which has been paid them. We could not
do otherwise than reject the demand made by the other party; and if
our labors finally terminated in an honorable peace, it was owing to
causes on this side of the Atlantic, and not to any exertion of ours.
Whatever diversity of opinion may have existed as to the declaration
of the war, there are some points on which all may look back with
proud satisfaction. The first relates to the time of the conclusion of
the peace. Had it been made immediately after the treaty of Paris, we
should have retired humiliated from the contest, believing that we had
escaped the severe chastisement with which we were threatened, and that
we owed to the generosity and magnanimity of the enemy, what we were
incapable of commanding by our arms. That magnanimity would have been
the theme of every tongue, and of every press, abroad and at home. We
should have retired, unconscious of our own strength, and unconscious
of the utter inability of the enemy, with his whole undivided force,
to make any serious impression upon us. Our military character, then
in the lowest state of degradation, would have been unretrieved.
Fortunately for us, Great Britain chose to try the issue of the last
campaign. And the issue of the last campaign has demonstrated, in the
repulse before Baltimore, the retreat from Plattsburgh, the hard-fought
action on the Niagara frontier, and in that most glorious day, the
eighth of January, that we have always possessed the finest elements
of military composition, and that a proper use of them, only, was
necessary, to insure for the army and militia a fame as imperishable
as that which the navy had previously acquired.
Another point which appears to me to afford the highest consolation
is, that we fought the most powerful nation, perhaps, in existence,
single-handed and alone, without any sort of alliance. More than thirty
years has Great Britain been maturing her physical means, which she
had rendered as efficacious as possible, by skill, by discipline, and
by actual service. Proudly boasting of the conquest of Europe, she
vainly flattered herself with the easy conquest of America also. Her
veterans were put to flight or defeated, while all Europe――I mean the
governments of Europe――was gazing with cold indifference, or sentiments
of positive hatred of us, upon the arduous contest. Hereafter no
monarch can assert claims of gratitude upon us, for assistance rendered
in the hour of danger.
There is another view of which the subject of the war is fairly
susceptible. From the moment that Great Britain came forward at Ghent
with her extravagant demands, the war totally changed its character.
It became, as it were, a new war. It was no longer an American war,
prosecuted for redress of British aggressions upon American rights, but
became a British war, prosecuted for objects of British ambition, to be
accompanied by American sacrifices. And what were those demands? Here,
in the immediate neighborhood of a sister state and territories, which
were to be made in part the victims, they must have been felt, and
their enormity justly appreciated. They consisted of the erection of a
barrier between Canada and the United States, to be formed by cutting
off from Ohio and some of the territories a country more extensive
than Great Britain, containing thousands of freemen, who were to be
abandoned to their fate, and creating a new power, totally unknown
upon the continent of America; of the dismantling of our fortresses,
and naval power on the lakes, with the surrender of the military
occupation of those waters to the enemy, and of an _arrondissement_ for
two British provinces. These demands, boldly asserted, and one of them
declared to be a _sine qua non_, were finally relinquished. Taking this
view of the subject, if there be loss of reputation by either party, in
the terms of peace, who has sustained it?
The effects of the war are highly satisfactory. Abroad, our
character, which at the time of its declaration was in the lowest
state of degradation, is raised to the highest point of elevation.
It is impossible for any American to visit Europe, without being
sensible of this agreeable change, in the personal attentions which
he receives, in the praises which are bestowed on our past exertions,
and the predictions which are made as to our future prospects. At home,
a government, which, at its formation, was apprehended by its best
friends, and pronounced by its enemies to be incapable of standing the
shock, is found to answer all the purposes of its institution. In spite
of the errors which have been committed (and errors have undoubtedly
been committed), aided by the spirit and patriotism of the people, it
is demonstrated to be as competent to the objects of effective war, as
it has been before proved to be to the concerns of a season of peace.
Government has thus acquired strength and confidence. Our prospects
for the future, are of the brightest kind. With every reason to count
on the permanence of peace, it remains only for the government to
determine upon military and naval establishments adapted to the growth
and extension of our country and its rising importance, keeping in view
a gradual but not burdensome increase of the navy; to provide for the
payment of the interest, and the redemption of the public debt, and for
the current expenses of government. For all these objects, the existing
sources of the revenue promise not only to be abundantly sufficient,
but will probably leave ample scope to the exercise of the judgment of
congress, in selecting for repeal, modification, or abolition, those
which may be found most oppressive, inconvenient, or unproductive.
[The eighteenth and last toast was, ‘our guest, HENRY CLAY. We
welcome his return to that country, whose rights and interests
he has so ably maintained, at home and abroad.’]
My friends, I must again thank you for your kind and affectionate
attention. My reception has been more like that of a brother, than a
common friend or acquaintance, and I am utterly incapable of finding
words to express my gratitude. My situation is like that of a Swedish
gentleman, at a dinner given in England, by the Society of Friends
of Foreigners in Distress. A toast having been given complimentary to
his country, it was expected, as is usual on such occasions, that he
would rise and address the company. The gentleman, not understanding
the English language, rose under great embarrassment, and said, ‘sir,
I wish you to consider me _A Foreigner in Distress_.’ I wish you,
gentlemen, to consider me a _Friend_ in distress.