[THE congressional career of Mr. Clay, having been one of
the longest known in our annals, being about to close by his
resignation of his seat in the senate, to take effect this day,
he avails himself of the occasion to make a farewell address
to that honorable body, which, as a specimen of his peculiar
eloquence, will favorably compare with any of his previous
efforts on which his claims rest as an orator and statesman,
whether delivered at the capitol, before the legislators of the
nation, or to assemblages of the people in various parts of the
country.]
MR. CLAY rose, with deep and solemn emotion, and said, that, before
proceeding to make the motion for which he had risen, he begged leave
to submit, on the only occasion remaining to him, an observation or
two on a different subject. It would be remembered that he had offered,
on a former day, some resolutions proposing certain amendments in the
constitution of the United States; they had undergone some discussion,
and he had been desirous of replying to the able arguments which had
been urged in opposition to them, and of obtaining an expression of the
sense of the senate; but owing to the infirm state of his health, to
the pressure of business in the senate, and especially to the absence,
at this moment, of several of his friends, he had concluded that this
was unnecessary. He regretted the want of an opportunity to present
what he thought would be a satisfactory answer to those arguments. He
should commit the subject, therefore, to the hands of the senate, to
be disposed of as their judgment should dictate; concluding what he
had to say in relation to them with the remark, that the convictions
he had before entertained in regard to the several amendments, he still
deliberately held, after all that he had heard upon the subjects; and
that he firmly believed the true and permanent security of the just
checks and balances of the constitution required their adoption.
And now, said Mr. C., allow me to announce, formally and officially, my
retirement from the senate of the United States, and to present the
last motion I shall ever make in this body. But, before I make that
motion, I trust I shall be pardoned if I avail myself, with the
permission and indulgence of the senate, of this last occasion of
addressing to it a few more observations.
I entered the senate of the United States in December, 1806. I
regarded that body then, and still consider it, as one which may
compare, without disadvantage, with any legislative assembly, either in
ancient or modern times, whether I look to its dignity, the extent and
importance of its powers, the ability by which its individual members
have been distinguished, or its organic constitution. If compared in
any of these respects with the senates either of France or of England,
that of the United States will sustain no derogation. With respect
to the mode of constituting those bodies, I may observe, that, in
the house of peers in England, with the exceptions of Ireland, and
of Scotland――and in that of France with no exception whatever――the
members hold their places in their individual rights under no delegated
authority, not even from the order to which they belong, but derive
them from the grant of the crown, transmitted by descent, or created
in new patents of nobility; while here we have the proud and more
noble title of representatives of sovereign states, of distinct and
independent commonwealths.
If we look again at the powers exercised by the senates of France and
England, and by the senate of the United States, we shall find that the
aggregate of power is much greater here. In all, the respective bodies
possess the legislative power. In the foreign senates, as in this,
the judicial power is invested, although there it exists in a larger
degree than here. But, on the other hand, that vast, undefined, and
undefinable power involved in the right to coöperate with the executive
in the formation and ratification of treaties, is enjoyed in all
its magnitude and consequence by this body, while it is possessed by
neither of theirs: besides which, there is another function of very
great practical importance――that of sharing with the executive branch
in distributing the immense patronage of this government. In both these
latter respects we stand on grounds different from the house of peers
either of England or France. And then, as to the dignity and decorum
of its proceedings, and ordinarily, as to the ability of its members,
I may, with great truth, declare that, during the whole long period of
my knowledge of this senate, it can, without arrogance or presumption,
stand an advantageous comparison with any deliberative body that ever
existed in ancient or modern times.
Full of attraction, however, as a seat in the senate is, sufficient
as it is to satisfy the aspirations of the most ambitious heart, I have
long determined to relinquish it, and to seek that repose which can
be enjoyed only in the shades of private life, in the circle of one’s
own family, and in the tranquil enjoyments included in one enchanting
word――Home.
It was my purpose to terminate my connection with this body in
November, 1840, after the memorable and glorious political struggle
which distinguished that year: but I learned, soon after, what indeed
I had for some time anticipated from the result of my own reflections,
that an extra session of congress would be called; and I felt desirous
to coöperate with my political and personal friends in restoring, if it
could be effected, the prosperity of the country, by the best measures
which their united counsels might be able to devise; and I therefore
attended the extra session. It was called, as all know, by the lamented
Harrison; but his death, and the consequent accession of his successor,
produced an entirely new aspect of public affairs. Had he lived, I have
not one particle of doubt that every important measure to which the
country had looked with so confident an expectation would have been
consummated, by the coöperation of the executive with the legislative
branch of the government. And here allow me to say, only, in regard
to that so much reproached extra session of congress, that I believe
if any of those, who, through the influence of party spirit, or the
bias of political prejudice, have loudly censured the measures then
adopted, would look at them in a spirit of candor and of justice, their
conclusion, and that of the country generally, would be, that if there
exist any just ground of complaint, it is to be found not in what was
done, but in what was not done, but left unfinished.
Had president Harrison lived, and the measures devised at that session
been fully carried out, it was my intention then to have resigned my
seat. But the hope (I feared it might prove vain) that, at the regular
session, the measures which we had left undone might even then be
perfected, or the same object attained in an equivalent form, induced
me to postpone the determination; and events which arose after the
extra session, resulting from the failure of those measures which
had been proposed at that session, and which seemed for the moment to
subject our political friends to the semblance of defeat, confirmed
me in the resolution to attend the present session also, and, whether
in prosperity or adversity, to share the fortune of my friends. But
I resolved, at the same time, to retire as soon as I could do so with
propriety and decency.
From 1806, the period of my entrance upon this noble theatre, with
short intervals, to the present time, I have been engaged in the public
councils, at home or abroad. Of the services rendered during that long
and arduous period of my life it does not become me to speak; history,
if she deign to notice me, and posterity, if the recollection of my
humble actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, the
truest, and the most impartial judges. When death has closed the scene,
their sentence will be pronounced, and to that I commit myself. My
public conduct is a fair subject for the criticism and judgment of my
fellow-men; but the motives by which I have been prompted are known
only to the great searcher of the human heart and to myself; and I
trust I may be pardoned for repeating a declaration made some thirteen
years ago, that, whatever errors, and doubtless there have been
many, may be discovered in a review of my public service, I can with
unshaken confidence appeal to that divine arbiter for the truth of
the declaration, that I have been influenced by no impure purpose, no
personal motive; have sought no personal aggrandizement; but that, in
all my public acts, I have had a single eye directed, and a warm and
devoted heart dedicated, to what, in my best judgment, I believed the
true interests, the honor, the union, and the happiness of my country
required.
During that long period, however, I have not escaped the fate of other
public men, nor failed to incur censure and detraction of the bitterest,
most unrelenting, and most malignant character; and though not always
insensible to the pain it was meant to inflict, I have borne it in
general with composure, and without disturbance here, [pointing to his
breast,] waiting as I have done, in perfect and undoubting confidence,
for the ultimate triumph of justice and of truth, and in the entire
persuasion that time would settle all things as they should be, and
that whatever wrong or injustice I might experience at the hands of
man, He to whom all hearts are open and fully known, would, by the
inscrutable dispensations of his providence, rectify all error, redress
all wrong, and cause ample justice to be done.
But I have not meanwhile been unsustained. Everywhere throughout
the extent of this great continent I have had cordial, warm-hearted,
faithful, and devoted friends, who have known me, loved me, and
appreciated my motives. To them, if language were capable of fully
expressing my acknowledgments, I would now offer all the return I have
the power to make for their genuine, disinterested, and persevering
fidelity and devoted attachment, the feelings and sentiments of a
heart overflowing with never ceasing gratitude. If, however, I fail
in suitable language to express my gratitude to _them_ for all the
kindness they have shown me, what shall I say, what _can_ I say at all
commensurate with those feelings of gratitude with which I have been
inspired by the state whose humble representative and servant I have
been in this chamber? [Here Mr. C’s feelings overpowered him, and he
proceeded with deep sensibility and difficult utterance.]
I emigrated from Virginia to the state of Kentucky now nearly
forty-five years ago; I went as an orphan boy who had not yet attained
the age of majority; who had never recognised a father’s smile, nor
felt his warm caresses; poor, pennyless, without the favor of the great,
with an imperfect and neglected education, hardly sufficient for the
ordinary business and common pursuits of life; but scarce had I set my
foot upon her generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness,
caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patronised with
liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the highest honors
of the state have been freely bestowed upon me; and when, in the
darkest hour of calumny and detraction, I seemed to be assailed by all
the rest of the world, she interposed her broad and impenetrable shield,
repelled the poisoned shafts that were aimed for my destruction, and
vindicated my good name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. I
return with indescribable pleasure to linger a while longer, and mingle
with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that state; and, when
the last scene shall for ever close upon me, I hope that my earthly
remains will be laid under her green sod with those of her gallant and
patriotic sons.
But the ingenuity of my assailants is never exhausted. It seems I have
subjected myself to a new epithet; which I do not know whether to take
in honor or derogation: I am held up to the country as a ‘dictator.’ A
dictator! The idea of a dictatorship is drawn from Roman institutions;
and at the time the office was created, the person who wielded the
tremendous weight of authority it conferred, concentrated in his
own person an absolute power over the lives and property of all his
fellow-citizens; he could levy armies; he could build and man navies;
he could raise any amount of revenue he might choose to demand; and
life and death rested on his fiat. If I were a dictator, as I am said
to be, where is the power with which I am clothed? Have I any army? any
navy? any revenue? any patronage? in a word, any power whatever? If I
had been a dictator, I think that even those who have the most freely
applied to me the appellation must be compelled to make two admissions;
first, that my dictatorship has been distinguished by no cruel
executions, stained by no blood, sullied by no act of dishonor; and
I think they must also own, (though I do not exactly know what date
my commission of dictator bears; I suppose, however, it must have
commenced with the extra session;) that if I did usurp the power of a
dictator, I at least voluntarily surrendered it within a shorter period
than was allotted for the duration of the dictatorship of the Roman
commonwealth.
If to have sought at the extra session and at the present, by the
coöperation of my friends, to carry out the great measures intended by
the popular majority of 1840, and to have earnestly wished that they
should all have been adopted and executed; if to have ardently desired
to see a disordered currency regulated and restored, and irregular
exchanges equalized and adjusted; if to have labored to replenish the
empty coffers of the treasury by suitable duties; if to have endeavored
to extend relief to the unfortunate bankrupts of the country, who had
been ruined in a great measure by the erroneous policy, as we believed,
of this government; to limit, circumscribe, and reduce executive
authority; to retrench unnecessary expenditure and abolish useless
offices and institutions; and the public honor to preserve untarnished
by supplying a revenue adequate to meet the national engagements and
incidental protection to the national industry; if to have entertained
an anxious solicitude to redeem every pledge, and execute every promise
fairly made by my political friends, with a view to the acquisition
of power from the hands of an honest and confiding people; if these
constitute a man a DICTATOR, why, then, I must be content to bear,
although I still ought only to share with my friends, the odium or the
honor of the epithet, as it may be considered on the one hand or the
other.
That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition, especially
in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am ready to own;
and those who suppose that I have been assuming the dictatorship, have
only mistaken for arrogance or assumption that ardor and devotion which
are natural to my constitution, and which I may have displayed with
too little regard to cold, calculating, and cautious prudence, in
sustaining and zealously supporting important national measures of
policy which I have presented and espoused.
In the course of a long and arduous public service, especially during
the last eleven years in which I have held a seat in the senate, from
the same ardor and enthusiasm of character, I have no doubt, in the
heat of debate, and in an honest endeavor to maintain my opinions
against adverse opinions alike honestly entertained, as to the
best course to be adopted for the public welfare, I may have often
inadvertently and unintentionally, in moments of excited debate, made
use of language that has been offensive, and susceptible of injurious
interpretation towards my brother senators. If there be any here
who retain wounded feelings of injury or dissatisfaction produced
on such occasions, I beg to assure them that I now offer the most
ample apology for any departure on my part from the established rules
of parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure
senators, one and all, without exception and without reserve, that I
retire from this chamber without carrying with me a single feeling of
resentment or dissatisfaction to the senate or any one of its members.
I go from this place under the hope that we shall, mutually, consign
to perpetual oblivion whatever personal collisions may at any time
unfortunately have occurred between us; and that our recollections
shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of mind with mind, those
intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions of the powers of logic,
argument, and eloquence, honorable to the senate and to the nation, in
which each has sought and contended for what he deemed the best mode
of accomplishing one common object, the interest and the most happiness
of our beloved country. To these thrilling and delightful scenes it
will be my pleasure and my pride to look back in my retirement with
unmeasured satisfaction.
And now, Mr. President, allow me to make the motion which it
was my object to submit when I rose to address you. I present the
credentials of my friend and successor. If any void has been created
by my withdrawal from the senate, it will be amply filled by him, whose
urbanity, whose gallant and gentlemanly bearing, whose steady adherence
to principle, and whose rare and accomplished powers in debate, are
known to the senate and to the country. I move that his credentials be
received, and that the oath of office be now administered to him.
In retiring, as I am about to do, for ever, from the senate, suffer
me to express my heartfelt wishes that all the great and patriotic
objects of the wise framers of our constitution may be fulfilled;
that the high destiny designed for it may be fully answered; and that
its deliberations, now and hereafter, may eventuate in securing the
prosperity of our beloved country, in maintaining its rights and honor
abroad, and upholding its interests at home. I retire, I know, at a
period of infinite distress and embarrassment. I wish I could take
my leave of you under more favorable auspices; but, without meaning
at this time to say whether on any or on whom reproaches for the sad
condition of the country should fall, I appeal to the senate and to the
world to bear testimony to my earnest and continued exertions to avert
it, and to the truth that no blame can justly attach to me.
May the most precious blessings of heaven rest upon the whole senate
and each member of it, and may the labors of every one redound to the
benefit of the nation and the advancement of his own fame and renown.
And when you shall retire to the bosom of your constituents, may you
receive that most cheering and gratifying of all human rewards――their
cordial greeting of ‘well done, good and faithful servant.’
And now, Mr. President, and senators, I bid you all a long, a lasting,
and a friendly farewell.