Life of Henry Clay |
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Page 376 - The Congress, the Executive and the Court must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others.
Page 77 - With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.
Page 234 - The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and to contemplate the intermediate changes which had taken place ; to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the highways constructed,. the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population. General, your present visit to the United States is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You are...
Page 157 - They may bear down all opposition ; they may even vote the General* the public thanks; they may carry him triumphantly through this House. But, if they do, in my humble judgment, it will be a triumph of the principle of insubordination, a triumph of the military over the civil authority, a triumph over the powers of this House, a triumph over the Constitution of the land. And I pray most devoutly to Heaven, that it may not prove, in its ultimate effects and consequences, a triumph over the liberties...
Page 188 - That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution, submitted on the part of said State to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States...
Page 79 - In reply, he would ask, what are we not to lose by peace? — commerce, character, a nation's best treasure, honor! If pecuniary considerations alone are to govern, there is sufficient motive for the war. Our revenue is reduced, by the operation of the belligerent edicts, to about six millton of dollars, according to the Secretary of the Treasury's report.
Page 96 - If he did not consider this mere mockery, the poor tar would address her judgment and say : " You owe me, my country, protection; I owe you in return obedience. I am no British subject, I am a native of old Massachusetts, where live my aged father, my wife, my children. I have faithfully discharged my duty. Will you refuse to do yours...
Page 62 - Senate, he had already acquired a position of leadership among the members of the Republican majority. He won it in his characteristic fashion ; that is to say, he straightway seized it, and in deference to his boldness and ability it was conceded to him. In the debate on the West Florida question he was decidedly the most conspicuous and important figure; and when the veteran Timothy Pickering, in a speech in reply to Clay, quoted a document which years before had been communicated to the Senate...
Page 96 - Appealing to her passions, he would continue : ' I lost this eye in fighting under Truxton, with the Insurgente ; I got this scar before Tripoli ; I broke this leg on board the Constitution, when the Guerriere struck.' If she remained still unmoved, he would break out, in the accents of mingled distress and despair, Hard, hard is my fate ! once I freedom enjoyed, Was as happy as happy could be ! Oh...
Page 239 - Mr. Adams, you know well, I should never have selected, if at liberty to draw from the whole mass of our citizens, for a president. But there is no danger in his elevation now, or in time to come. Not so of his competitor, of whom I cannot believe that killing two thousand five hundred Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various difficult and complicated duties of the chief magistracy.