“When Greece rose against the Turks and struck for liberty, his name was mingled with the battle-cry of freedom.  When South America threw off the thraldom of Spain, his speeches were read at the head of her armies by Bolivar.  His name has been, and will continue to be, hallowed in two hemispheres, for it is

     “’One of the few, the immortal names
      That were not born to die!’

“To the ardent patriot and profound statesman he added a quality possessed by few of the gifted on earth.  His eloquence has not been surpassed.  In the effective power to move the heart of man, Clay was without an equal, and the heaven-born endowment, in the spirit of its origin, has been most conspicuously exhibited against intestine feud.  On at least three important occasions he has quelled our civil commotions by a power and influence which belonged to no other statesman of his age and times.  And in our last internal discord, when this Union trembled to its centre, in old age he left the shades of private life, and gave the death-blow to fraternal strife, with the vigor of his earlier years, in a series of senatorial efforts which in themselves would bring immortality by challenging comparison with the efforts of any statesman in any age.  He exorcised the demon which possessed the body politic, and gave peace to a distracted land.  Alas! the achievement cost him his life.  He sank day by day to the tomb his pale but noble brow bound with a triple wreath, put there by a grateful country.  May his ashes rest in peace, while his spirit goes to take its station among the great and good men who preceded him.”

While it is customary and proper upon occasions like the present to give a brief sketch of the life of the deceased, in the case of Mr. Clay it is less necessary than most others; for his biography has been written and rewritten and read and reread for the last twenty-five years; so that, with the exception of a few of the latest incidents of his life, all is as well known as it can be.  The short sketch which I give is, therefore, merely to maintain the connection of this discourse.

Henry Clay was born on the twelfth day of April, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia.  Of his father, who died in the fourth or fifth year of Henry’s age, little seems to be known, except that he was a respectable man and a preacher of the Baptist persuasion.  Mr. Clay’s education to the end of life was comparatively limited.  I say “to the end of life,” because I have understood that from time to time he added something to his education during the greater part of his whole life.  Mr. Clay’s lack of a more perfect early education, however it may be regretted generally, teaches at least one profitable lesson:  it teaches that in this country one can scarcely be so poor but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably.  In his twenty-third year Mr. Clay was licensed to practise law, and emigrated to Lexington, Kentucky.