CASSIUS M. CLAY, "LION" - The Filson Historical Society

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1957] Cassius M. Clay 141 Though opposed to the Mexican War, Cassius regarded his going to the war as an opportunity to put him in a position to exert a more decided influence in favor of the cause of emancipation. This, no less than the publication of an anti-slavery journal, The True American, he regarded as but means in the cause of emancipation of the slaves by constitutional methods, viz.--its abolition by appropriate action on the part of the electorate. 45 In justice to him, it should be kept in mind that in this he set himself apart from the Northern Abolitionists, who viewed slavery purely as a moral issue, disregarding that it had also become a highly charged political issue as well. It may well be that Clay erred in staking his political future (and without doubt he had the confidence in himself to believe he had a political future) on winning over a majority to the cause of emancipation. Events were to prove him too optimistic. The institution of slavery was destined to be eradicated only by civil war and reconstruction, rather than at the ballot box. Be this as it may, Clay achieved, in some measure, what he sought to accomplish by volunteering in a war which he had opposed in principle. During his absence in the war, a better feeling developed toward him, even in the pro-slavery Bluegrass. Sentiment towards him inevitably, underwent a change in the 16 months which had elapsed since that August day in 1846 when the mob raided the office of his press in Lexington.46 Upon his return to that City he was accorded a public reception, at which an address of welcome was delivered by Robert S. Todd, the father-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. One of the Committee of sixty who had stormed the office of The True American even undertook to be the grand marshal at the event.47 Tenders of political preferment were made by others of the Committee who had been its leaders, if only he would discontinue his attacks on slavery.4s The Whig party at the time was split over the coming Presidential campaign. The friends of Henry Clay, who had lost the election in 1844 by such a narrow margin, hoped to see him a candidate again, but influential party leaders felt that, if nominated again, he could not win. Cassius Clay had a hand not only in carrying the home delegation from Fayette County to the Whig State Convention in favor of making General Taylor the nominee, but was one of the majority of seven Kentucky delegates committed to Taylor at the Philadelphia National Convention, where, though Clay in April had announced he would again be a candidate, much was made of the fact that he could not command the delegation from his own State. 9 Taylor's nomination was resented by Henry Clay and many of his followers, who for a while talked of running their leader as an independent candidate. 5°
142 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 31 Letters which Cassius Clay had written to the newspapers during this canvass and a personal attack upon the beloved leader of the Whig party which he had imprudently addressed to the New York Express did nothing to salve a coolness which had grown up between the elder statesman and his brash young kinsman. 1 In Kentucky, where Henry Clay was a popular idol, this and Cassius Clay's resolute refusal to compromise his anti-slavery principles52 destroyed any chance of his advancement within the old line Whig party. When delegates came to be elected to the Kentucky Constitutional Convention of 1850, Cassius Clay was not even among the list of candidates. The advocates of slavery, who were represented by powerful leaders in both the old parties, s were everywhere triumphant. When, in 1851, Cassius Clay ran as an anti-slavery candidate for Governor54 he received less than 5,000 votes. His fight in Kentucky against slavery had, however, made him known throughout the North and given him political stance as an Outspoken anti-slavery politician from south of the Mason and Dixon line. 55 For him, the years leading up to the Civil War were to be years of persistent agitation by him of the slavery issue in his home State, in constant peril of his life and fore-armed against violence by a wellearned reputation for a proficiency in self-defense with a variety of weapons. Attention to his business affairs were to be interrupted by calls on the lecture circuit and on the political stump from outside of the State. For the venerable sage of Ashland, the few years remaining to him were to see him, while absent for the winter in New Orleans, elected again by the Kentucky legislature to the United States Senate---this time practically with unanimity--where he was to perform his last great service for the Union in exercising the masterly leadership which made possible the great Compromise of 1850. That Compromise, the last of the three great Compromises, which had saved the country from the threat of disunion and with which his name will be forever associated, proved even less durable than the two which had preceded it. It did, however, postpone the Civil War for a decade, thus insuring the ultimate triumph over disunion, by enabling the North far to outstrip the South in population and in industrialization. Editor's Note---It is hoped that additional unpublished letters of and about the "Lion" of White Hall will be edited by Mr. Clay for the History Quarterly at an early date.
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CASSIUS M. CLAY, "LION" - The Filson Historical Society

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