The Great Commoner. friends. A short time before his death, he said, " Among the acts of my public life which I look back to with the most satis faction, is that of my having co-operated with other zealous and intelligent friends to procure the establishment of that system in this State. We were overpowered by num bers, but submitted to the decision of the majority with that grace which the minority in a republic should ever yield to the de cision. I have, nevertheless, never ceased, and shall never cease, to regret a decision the effects of which have been to place us in the rear of our neighbors, who are ex empt from slavery." Hon. R. C. Winthrop, who knew Clay personally, says, " Mr. Clay's personal love of human freedom was recognized by Wil liam Ellery Channing — one of whose im pressive sermons I took him to hear at the old Federal Street Church — when he ad dressed to him his letter against the annexa tion of Texas. It was recognized, too, by Joseph John Gurney, when he addressed to him his letters on emancipation in the West Indies. He himself gave signal testimony to it, as we have seen, in relation to the con stitution of Kentucky.
- Nor
should it be forgotten *
- that
when the late William Lloyd Garrison was imprisoned in Baltimore, Henry Clay is un derstood to have made an immediate, though unsuccessful effort to stand bail for his release." In 1797 he married Lucretia Hart, a young lady of good family; soon after the honeymoon he purchased Ashland, a beau tiful estate, and here he entertained many of his distinguished friends. During this year he opposed the alien and sedition laws of John Adams's administration, and he became very popular. In. the presidential election of 1800 he supported Jefferson; his party carried the State, and finally the entire country. In 1803, when Clay was but twenty-six years old, he was elected a member of the
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Kentucky legislature, and his nomination and election were altogether unsolicited by himself. He remained in the legislature for some years, and took an active part in the discussion and settlement of several im portant measures. In the year 1806, the young lawyer was elected a member of the United States Sen ate, although he lacked three months and seventeen days of thirty years, which is the legal age of a senator; he served but for one short session, however, it being the balance of an unexpired term of a senator who re signed, and the mistake was not discovered until after his return to Kentucky. In 1807 he was again elected to the State legislature, and was chosen speaker of the house. It was in the course of this session that he opposed the proposition " to prohi bit the reading in a Kentucky court of any British elementary work of law, or the cita tion of any precedent of a British court." The measure found favor with the majority of the house, but Clay soon convinced them of their error, and introduced an amend ment " to exclude from the Kentucky courts only those British decisions which have been made since the Declaration of Indepen dence." Notwithstanding the great popu larity of the original resolution, the elo quence of Clay secured for his amendment a large majority. About this time he fought a duel with Humphrey Marshall, a brother of the dis tinguished Chief Justice. Mr. Marshall was a bitter Federalist, and gave to his tongue and pen a degree of license that led to much ill-feeling. In the course of a speech of Mr. Clay, Marshall indulged in rude and sar castic remarks. Clay retorted in kind, and he finally challenged Marshall to a duel. They met and fought with pistols, and each was slightly wounded. Clay was intolerant and aggressive, de lighting in gladiatorial combats, and ming ling personal imputations with argument, striving to overwhelm his antagonist by ac
