yond all former example — adding, with their advance to the comforts of life in a de gree far greater and more universal than all that was ever known before. Civilization has, during the same period, spread its in fluence far and wide, and the general pro gress in knowledge and its diffusion through all ranks of society, has outstripped all that has ever gone before it. The two great agents of the physical world have become subject to the will of man, and have been made subservient to all his wants and en joyments; I allude to steam and electricity, under whatever name the latter may be called. The former has overcome distance both on land and water, to an extent which former generations had not the least concep tion was possible. It has, in effect, reduced the Atlantic to half its former width, while, at the same time, it has added three-fold to the rapidity of intercourse by land. Within the same period, electricity, the greatest and most diffuse of all known physical agents, has been made the instrument for the trans mission of thought, I will not say with the rapidity of lightning, but by lightning itself. Magic wires are stretching themselves in all directions over the earth, bringing men closer together." At the Philadelphia convention in 1848, Clay was again defeated, and this was the culmination of his mortification and wrath at the final overthrow of all his schemes. He passionately aspired to be president; he wished this for many reasons; he was sure that his theory of the policy of the govern ment would insure prosperity to the coun try and the people; then he desired to re ward his friends and punish his enemies. Clay had resigned his seat in the Senate previous to the election, and he retired to Ashland; but he could not long remain in active, and he soon returned to the Senate. Clay's last public effort was in support of the " compromise measures" in 1850. His health was now failing and he visited New Orleans and Havana the following winter.
Ashland was mortgaged for $50,000, and upon his return from the South he discov ered that this had been removed privately by his friends. " Had ever a man," he ex claimed, "such friends or enemies as Henry Clay!" "The careless reader of our history in future centuries," wrote Horace Greeley, "will scarcely realize the force of Clay's per sonal magnetism, nor conceive how millions of hearts glowed with sanguine hope of his election to the presidency, and bitterly la mented his and their discomfiture." Clay resigned his seat in the Senate Sep tember 20, 1851, and in his valedictory ad dress, he said : " My acts and public con duct are a fair subject for the criticism and judgment of my fellowmen; but the private motives by which they have been prompted are known only to the great searcher of the human heart and myself. * * * What ever errors, and doubtless there have been many, may "be discovered in a review of my public service to the country, I can, with un shaken confidence, appeal to that divine ar biter 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 sole and single eye, and a warm and devoted heart, directed and dedi cated to what, in my best judgment, I be lieved to be the true interests of my country." While on a visit to Washington the fol lowing June, he was taken suddenly ill. A friend who had just returned from Kentucky, and who bore a message from his wife, went to visit him. Clay said to him, "I am not afraid to die, sir; I have hope, faith, and some confidence. I do not think any man can be entirely certain in regard to his future state, but I have an abiding trust in the merits and mediation of our Saviour." He met his end with composure, sur rounded by a few friends. On July 1, 1852, his body lay in state in the Senate Cham
