Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/673

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CLAY
CLAY
639

he made his son his private secretary, in which ca- pacity the boy continued his studies, and also con- tributed editorials to Alabama papers. When his father went to the senate, young Clay completed his law studies at the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He served in the Alabama legislature in 1842, 1844, and 1845, and iji 1846 became judge of the Madison county court. He resigned in 1848, and in 1853 was elected U. S. senator. In 1857 he delivered an elo- quent eulogy on Senator Butler, of South Carolina, and in 1858 made a speech advocating the admis- sion of Kansas to the Union under the Lecompton constitution. He also advocated a bill repealing the bounty on vessels engaged in the Newfound- land fisheries. As a senator, he regarded himself as the envoy of a sovereign state to the council of the nation, and lost no opportunity of asserting the rights of that state as defined by Mr. Calhoun and other southern statesmen. He was re-elected unanimously in 1859, but withdrew in February, 1861, his state having seceded from the Union. He was formally expelled from the senate in March, 1861, and was chosen a senator in the Confederate congress. He went to Canada in 1864 as a secret agent of the Confederate government, took part in planning the raids on the northern frontier, and made some futile attempts at negotiation with President Lincoln. He returned to the Confeder- acy, but took refuge in Canada at the close of the war. In May, 1865, hearing that a reward had been offered for his arrest, he gave himself up to the U. S. authorities and was for some time a pris- oner in Fort Monroe with Jefferson Davis. He was released in April, 1866. and from that time practised his profession at Huntsville.


CLAY, Edward W., caricaturist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1792; d. in New York city,. 31 Dec, 1857. He was a relative of Henry Clay, had a liberal education, and served as a midshipman in the U. S. navy. He then turned his attention to the law, and, though very young, was at once ap- pointed pi'othonotary of Philadelphia. His artistic tastes, however, led him to Europe, and he studied the old masters there for five years. On his return to Philadelphia he sketched " The Rats Leaving the Falling House," on the dissolution of Jack- son's cabinet. This brought him into notice, and for more than twenty years he was a noted carica- turist. After the failure of his eyesight he became clerk of the Chancery court, and of the Orphan's court in Delaware.


CLAY, Green, soldier, b. in Powhatan county, Va., 14 Aug., 1757; d. in Kentucky, 31 Oct., 1826. He emigrated to Kentucky before he was twenty years of age, became a surveyor, and acquired a fortune by locating lands. He was a representative of the Kentucky district in the Virginia legislature, a member of the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, and a leading member of the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1799. He was long a member of one or the other branch of the legisla- ture, and at one time speaker of the senate. In 1813, when Gen. Harrison was besieged by the British in Fort Meigs, he came to his relief with 3,000 volunteers and forced the enemy to with- draw. He was left in command at the fort, and defended it with great skill against an attack of the British and Indians under Gen. Proctor and Tecum.seh. After tlie war he retired to his planta- tion, and devoted himself to agriculture. He was a cousin of Henry Clay. — His son, Cassius Mar- cellus, politician, b. in Madison county, Ky., 19 Oct., 1810, studied at Transylvania imiversity, but afterward entered the Junior class at Yale, and was graduated there in 1832. While in New Haven he heard William Lloyd Garrison, and, although his parents were slave-holders, became an earnest abo- litionist. He began to practise law in his native county, and was elected to the legislature in 1835, but was defeated the next year on account of his advocacy of internal improvements. He was again elected in 1837, and in 1839 was a member of the convention that nominated Gen. Harrison for the presidency. He then removed to Lexington, and was again a member of the legislature in 1840, but in 1841 was defeated, after an exciting canvass, on account of his anti-slavery views. The improved jury system and the common-school system of Kentucky are largely due to his efforts while in the legislature. Mr. Clay denounced the proposed an- nexation of Texas, as intended to extend slavery, and in 1844 actively supported Henry Clay for the presidency, speaking in his behalf in the northern states. On 3 June, 1845, he issued in Lexington the first number of an anti-slavery paper entitled "The True American." Mob violence had been threatened, and the editor had prepared himself for it. He says in his memoirs : " I selected for my office a brick building, and lined the outside doors with sheet-iron, to prevent it being burned, I purchased two brass four-pounder cannon at Cincinnati, and placed them, loaded with shot and nails, on a table, breast high ; had folding-doors secured with a chain, which could open upon the mob and give play to the cannon. I furnished my office with Mexican lances, and a limited num- ber of guns. There were six or eight persons who stood ready to defend me. If defeated, they were to escape by a trap-door in the roof ; and I had placed a keg of powder with a match, which I could set off and blow up the office and all my invaders ; and this I should most certainly have done in case of the last extremity." In August, while the editor was sick, his press was seized by the mob and taken to Cincinnati, and he himself was threatened with assassination ; but, notwith- standing all opposition, he continued to publish the paper, printing it in Cincinnati and circulat- ing it thi'ough Kentucky. This was not his only narrow escape. He was continually involved in quarrels, had several bloody personal encounters, and habitually spoke in political meetings, with a bowie knife concealed about him, and a brace of pistols in the mouth of his grip-sack, which he placed at his feet. When war with Mexico was declared, Mr. Clay entered the army as captain of a volunteer infantry company that had already distinguished itself at Tippecanoe in 1811. He took this course because he thought a military title necessary to political advancement in a " fighting state " like Kentucky. On 23 Jan., 1847, while in the van, more than 100 miles in advance of the main army, he was taken prisoner, with seventy- one others, at Encarnacion, and marched to the city of Mexico. On one occasion, after the escape of some of the captives, the lives of the remainder were saved by Capt. Clay's gallantry and presence of mind. After being exchanged, he returned to Kentucky, and was presented by his fellow-citizens with a sword in honor of his services. He worked for Gen. Taylor's nomination in the convention of 1848, and carried Kentucky for him. He called a convention of emancipationists at Frankfort, Ky., in 1849, and in 1850, separating from the whig party, was an anti-slaveiy candidate for governor, receiving about 5.000 votes. He labored energeti- cally for Fremont's election in 1856, and for Lin- coln's in 1860. but took pains to separate himself from the " radical abolitionists," holding that all