cise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than 10,000,000 of people, will be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to the latest posterity." Clay was very witty, and many anecdotes are told of him, illustrating his readiness of reply. At the time of the passage of the tariff bill, as the House was about to ad journ, a friend of the bill observed to Clay, "We have done pretty well to-day." "Very well indeed," rejoined Clay, "very well; we made a good stand, considering we lost both our Feet;" alluding to Senator Foot of New York, and Senator Foot of Connec ticut, both having opposed the bill, although it was confidently expected a short time previous that both would support the meas ure. On another occasion, Senator Smyth, of Virginia, a gentleman of unusual ability and erudition, had been speaking for some hours, vexing the members with the length and number of his quotations and citations of authorities, and turning to Mr. Clay, he said, "You, sir, speak for the present generation, but I speak for posterity." "Yes," replied Clay, " and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival of your audience." When Senator Lincoln, of Maine, was considering before the House the Revolu tionary Pension bill, and replying to an ar gument which opposed it on the ground that those to whom it proposed to extend pe cuniary aid might perhaps live a long time, and thus cause heavy drafts to be made upon the treasury. In one of his flights of eloquence, he said, "Soldiers of the revo lution, live forever!" Mr. Clay succeeded him, in favor also of the humane provision, but he did not respond to Lincoln's de sire relative to the length of the lives of those soldiers for whose benefit it was de vised, and when he closed, he turned to him and said, with a smile, " I hope my worthy friend will not insist upon the very
great duration of these pensions which he has suggested. Will he not consent, by way of a compromise, to a term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years, instead of eternity?" ■ . ■" The House of Representatives was called upon to choose a President of the United States in 1825, the people having in the preceding year failed to make a choice. Clay had been one of the candidates be fore the people, but the number of votes he received was not large enough to bring him before the House. He gave his sup port to John Quincy Adams, who appointed him Secretary of State. He was accused by his enemies of hav ing been bribed into voting for Adams, but he answered this calumny as follows: "I have wished the good opinion of the world, but I defy the most malignant of my ene mies to show that I have attempted to gain it by any low or grovelling acts, by any mean or unworthy sacrifices, by the viola tion of any of the obligations of honor, or by a breach of any of the duties which I owed to*my country. If I know myself, if my head was at stake, I would do my duty, be the consequences what they might." Soon after Clay became Secretary of State, he fought a duel with John Randolph; this was the result of some vile language used by Randolph in the Senate. In 1828 Clay was again a candidate for the highest office in the gift of the people, but he was defeated, and he retired to private life. Of his journey home to Ashland, he wrote to a friend : — "My progress has been marked by eventoken of attachment and heartfelt demon strations. I never experienced more testi monies of respect and confidence, nor more enthusiasm — dinners, suppers, balls, etc. I have had literally a free passage. Taverns, stages, toll-gates, have been generally thrown open to me, free from all charge. Monarchs might be proud of the reception with which I have everywhere been honored."
