HENRY CLAY

In politics as in private life, [Henry] Clay is essentially a gamester, and, with a vigorous intellect, an ardent spirit, a handsome elocution, though with a mind very defective in elementary knowledge, and a very undigested system of ethics, he has all the qualities which belong to that class of human characters.

He is, like almost all the eminent men of this country, only half educated. His morals, public and private, are loose.

He [Henry Clay] is certainly the basest, meanest scoundrel that ever disgraces the image of God—nothing too mean or low for him to condescend to.

I have only 2 regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun.

[Referring to Henry Clay:] Judas of the West

Was there ever such a bare-faced corruption in any country before?

The Catholics had the right secured to them by the Constitution of worshipping the God of their fathers in the manner dictated by their consciences.... This country is not prepared to establish an inquisition to try and punish men for their religious beliefs.

Henry Clay's eloquence did not consist, as many fine specimens of eloquence do, of types and figures, of antitheses and elegant arrangements of words and sentences, but rather of that deeply earnest and impassioned tone and manner which can proceed only through conviction in the speaker of the justice and importance of his cause. This it is that truly touches the chords of sympathy; and those who heard Mr. Clay never failed to be moved by it, or ever after forgot the impression. All his [oratorical] efforts were made for practical effect. He never spoke merely to be heard.

Of all the leaders of the old parties, of all aspiring spirits of the new ones, including General Taylor and the whole of his cabinet, from head to tail, not a single soul, not a single mind, has dared to exhibit the moral courage of coming out with any plan for settling the whole question, except it is Henry Clay, who, solitary and alone, faces the crises with as much calmness and composure as General Taylor did the Mexicans at Buena Vista. Whatever may be the objections to Mr. Clay’s plan on the one side, or its recommendations on the other, we think the moral courage he has exhibited is a spectacle of sublimity that ought to shame all the politicians at Washington, and the miserable drivellers of both parties, and all parties, there and elsewhere.

My only two regrets in public life is that I did not hang John C. Calhoun and shoot Henry Clay.

Corrupt Bargain

The art of leading the vulgar, in itself, does no discredit to its practitioner. Lincoln practiced it unashamed, and so did Webster, Clay, and Henry. What is more, these men practiced it with frank allowance for the naïveté of the people they presumed to lead.

He [Henry Clay] is a bad man, an impostor, a creator of wicked schemes.

Retaliation is sometimes mercy, mercy to both parties

The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.

A rigid, fanatic, ambitious, selfishly partisan and sectional turncoat with too much genius and too little common sense, who will either die a traitor or a madman.

No man in the nation wants peace more than I; but I prefer the troubled ocean of war, demanded by the honor and independence of the country, with all its calamities and desolation, to the tranquil and putrescent pool of ignominious peace.

I do not think that the subject of slavery ought to affect the question, one way or another. Whether Texas be independent, or incorporated in the United States, I do not believe it will prolong or shorten the duration of that institution. It is destined to become extinct, at some distant day, in my opinion, by the operation of the inevitable laws of population. It would be unwise to refuse a permanent acquisition, which will exist as long as the globe remains, on account of a temporary institution.

What in the name of humanity is to become of them—where are they to go?

The President in the late Executive proceedings in the relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.

An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.

Yes, sir, from Constantinople, or from the Brazils; from Turk or Christian; from black or white; from the dey of Algiers or the bey of Tunis; from the devil himself, if he wore a crown, we should receive a minister.

I am the most unfortunate man in the history of parties: always run by my friends when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a nomination when I, or any one, would be sure of an election.