cumulating accusations and disparaging al lusions to the unworthiness of his motives. In denunciation he was unsparing and mer ciless. His armory was filled with all the weapons available in sarcasm and ridicule, and no man better understood the advan tage of depreciating his adversary's charac ter, while he assailed his public conduct. Clay excelled in denouncing his enemies; in retort he was merciless; he did not hesi tate to allude to physical defects or natural infirmities of any description. Senator Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, disliked Clay very cordially. On one occasion, when the Democrats were in the majority, Clay com plained of some act of Senator Wright, al luding to him as the leader of the Senate. From the spot where Clay was standing, Wright and Buchanan were nearly in a range in the semi-circle. Buchanan rose to reply, supposing himself to have been referred to. Mr. Clay, with an expression of derision and contempt, said, " Mr. President, the senator from Pennsylvania is giving himself a deal of unnecessary trouble. I made no allu sion to him, sir. I spoke of the leader of the Senate," pointing directly at Mr. Wright. Mr. Buchanan,with much embarrassment, replied, "Mr. President, I did not intend to arrogate to myself any such distinction. I make no pretensions to be the leader of the Senate. [" I should hope not," said Clay, without rising.] But Senator Clay certain ly looked at me!" "No, Mr. President," said Clay, "I did nothing of the kind. It was not that I looked at the senator [here he held his hands up, making a cross with two fin gers]; it was the way the senator looked at me." A pompous senator from Connecticut was haughty and overbearing to all col leagues, and Clay in the course of a speech referred to the senator, imitating his lan guage and manner, and applied the verses of Peter Pindar's mag-pie :
"Thus have I seen a mag-pie in the street, A chattering bird we often meet, A bird for curiosity well known, With head awry, And cunning eye, Peep knowingly into a marrow-bone." This sally convulsed the house, and com pletely vanquished the senator from Con necticut. Clay was again chosen a member of the United States Senate in 1809, to serve out an unexpired term; he remained there two years, supporting the administration of President Madison. On the 4th of Novem ber he entered the House of Representatives, and on the same day was chosen speaker, receiving seventy-five votes out of a total of one hundred and twenty-eight. He was an ideal leader; his oratory was almost fault less, his manner fascinating, his voice full of melody, and he always spoke in a confident, positive tone, impressing all with a convic tion that he must be in the right. His frank bearing, his self-developed vigor, his spontaneous eloquence and com mand of language were western characteris tics, and reached the heart of the common people. While Calhoun engaged the atten tion of philosophers, and Webster had the ear of lawyers and the mercantile classes, Clay, " the mill-boy of the Slashes," was out in the open air with the people, excit ing at will their sympathies and friendship. He never hesitated in the use of words,
- * * but he was defective in early cul
ture, and occasionally his most finished speeches lacked that rare felicity always ex hibited by his scholarly rivals, Webster and Calhoun. In reply to John Randolph, who, in the course of a speech, sneered at his lack of education, he said, "The gentleman from Virginia was pleased to say that in one point, at least, he coincided with me in an humble estimate of my grammatical and philological acquisitions. I know my de ficiencies. I was born to no proud patri monial estate. I inherited only infancy, ig norance and indigence. I feel my defects.
