Then he remained confined to his rooms at the National Hotel, a very ill man. But public affairs did not cease to break his repose. Early in the winter he received a visit from Horace Greeley, who informed him of the disturbing effect produced by the fugitive-slave law upon the people of the Northern States. Clay deplored that in framing that act no greater care had been taken so to shape its provisions as to spare the feelings of the citizens of the Free States, but he thought it unadvisable now to attempt a change of the law.
From his sick-chamber, Clay also gave his last warning counsel to the American people. It was when he spoke to Louis Kossuth.
The revolutionary movements in Europe, beginning in the early spring of 1848, had awakened the heartiest sympathies in America, none more than the struggle of the Hungarian people for national independence. In 1849 President Taylor had dispatched a special agent to Hungary to inquire whether the situation of that country would justify its recognition as an independent state. But when that agent arrived there, the intervention of Russia had already rendered the Hungarian armies unable to hold the field. The Austrian Minister at Washington, Chevalier Huelsemann, made the sending of the special emissary the subject of formal complaint. Webster, then Secretary of State, replied with the famous “Huelsemann letter,” which electrified the national pride of the American people. Kossuth, the late “governor” of revolution-
