part with his beloved home. Relief came to him suddenly, and in an unexpected form. When offering a payment to the bank at Lexington, the president of the institution informed him that sums of money had arrived from different parts of the country to pay off Henry Clay's debts, and that all the notes and the mortgage were cancelled. Clay was deeply moved. “Who did this?” he asked the banker. All the answer he received was that the givers were unknown, but they were presumably “not his enemies.” Clay doubted whether he should accept the gift, and consulted some of his friends. They reminded him of the many persons of historic renown who had not refused tokens of admiration and gratitude from their countrymen; and added that, as he could not discover the unknown givers, he could not return the gift; and, as the gift appeared in the shape of a discharged obligation, he could not force the renewal of the debt. At last he consented to accept, and thus was Ashland saved to him.
In January, 1845, Clay attended a meeting of the American Colonization Society at Washington, which was held in the hall of the House of Representatives. “Last night Mr. Clay made a show on the colonization question, and such a show I never saw,” wrote Alexander H. Stephens to his brother. “Men came from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, to say nothing of Alexandria and this city. The house and galleries were
