within a shorter period than was allotted for the duration of the dictatorship of the Roman commonwealth.

If to have sought at the extra session and at the present, by the co-operation of my friends, to carry out the great measures intended by the popular majority of 1840, and to have earnestly wished that they should all have been adopted and executed; if to have ardently desired to see a disordered currency regulated and restored, and irregular exchanges equalized and adjusted; if to have labored to replenish the empty coffers of the treasury by suitable duties; if to have endeavored to extend relief to the unfortunate bankrupts of the country, who had been ruined in a great measure by the erroneous policy, as we believed, of this government; to limit, circumscribe, and reduce executive authority; to retrench unnecessary expenditure and abolish useless offices and institutions; and the public honor to preserve untarnished by supplying a revenue adequate to meet the national engagements and incidental protection to the national industry; if to have entertained an anxious solicitude to redeem every pledge, and execute every promise fairly made by my political friends, with a view to the acquisition of power from the hands of an honest and confiding people; if these constitute a man a DICTATOR, why, then, I must be content to bear, although I still ought only to share with my friends, the odium or the honor of the epithet, as it may be considered on the one hand or the other.

That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition, especially in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am ready to own; and those who suppose that I have been assuming the dictatorship, have only mistaken for arrogance or assumption that ardor and devotion which are natural to my constitution, and which I may have displayed with too little regard to cold, calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zealously supporting important national measures of policy which I have presented and espoused.

In the course of a long and arduous public service, especially during the last eleven years in which I have held a seat in the Senate, from the same ardor and enthusiasm of character, I have no doubt, in the heat of debate, and in an honest endeavor to maintain my opinions against adverse opinions alike honestly entertained, as to the best course to be adopted for the public welfare, I may have often inadvertently and unintentionally, in moments of excited debate, made use of language that has been offensive, and susceptible of injurious interpretation toward my brother senators. If there be any here who retain wounded feelings, of injury or dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to assure them that I now offer the most ample apology for any departure on my part from the established rules of parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure senators, one and all, without exception, and without reserve, that I retire from this chamber without carrying with me a single feeling of resentment or dissatisfaction to the Senate or any one of its members.

I go from this place under the hope that we shall, mutually, consign to perpetual oblivion whatever personal collisions may at any time unfortunately have occurred between us; and that our recollections shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of mind with mind, those intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions of the powers of logic, argument, and eloquence, honorable to the Senate and to the nation, in which each has sought and contended for what he deemed the best mode of accomplishing one common object, the interest and the most happiness of our beloved country. To these thrilling and delightful scenes it will be my pleasure and my pride to look back in my retirement with unmeasured satisfaction.

And now, Mr. President, allow me to make the motion which it was my object to submit when I rose to address you. I present the credentials of my friend and successor. If any void has been created by my withdrawal from the Senate, it will be amply filled by him, whose urbanity, whose gallant and gentlemanly bearing, whose steady adherence to principle, and whose rare and accomplished powers in debate, are known to the Senate and to the country. I move that his credentials be received, and that the oath of office be now administered to him.

In retiring, as I am about to do, forever, from the Senate, suffer me to express my heartfelt wishes that all the great and patriotic objects of the wise framers of our Constitution may be fulfilled; that the high destiny designed for it may be fully answered; and that its deliberations, now and hereafter, may eventuate in securing the prosperity of our beloved country, in maintaining its rights and honor abroad, and upholding its interests at home. I retire, I know, at a period of infinite distress and embarrassment. I wish I could take my leave of you under more favorable auspices; but, without meaning at this time to say whether on any or on whom reproaches for the sad condition of the country should fall, I appeal to the Senate and to the world to bear testimony to my earnest and continued exertions to avert it, and to the truth that no blame can justly attach

to me.

May the most precious blessings of heaven rest upon the whole Senate and each member of it, and may the labors of every one redound to the benefit of the nation and to the advancement of his own fame and re

nown.

And when you shall retire to the bosom of your constituents, may you receive the most cheering and gratifying of all human rewards—their cordial greeting of "Well done, good and faithful servant."

And now, Mr. President, and senators, I bid you all a long, a lasting, and a friendly farewell.

Mr. Crittenden was then duly qualified, and took his seat; when

Mr. Preston rose, and said: What had just taken place was an epoch in their legislative history, and from the feeling which was evinced, he plainly saw that there was little disposition to attend to business. He would therefore move that the Senate adjourn; which motion was unanimously agreed to.

ON RETIRING TO PRIVATE LIFE.

LEXINGTON, JUNE 9, 1842.

[As will have been seen, the preceding speech is a record of Mr. Clay's adieu to the Senate of the United States. The following is an address to his fellow-citizens and neighbors, assembled to welcome his return to dwell among them, after thirtynine years of public service, counting the time of his being a member of the Legislature of Kentucky. He was elected to that body in 1803, and sent to the Senate of the United States in 1806. There was indeed a brief interval of absence from Congress a year or two-to repair his private fortune. If we include his last term of service in the Senate of the United States, to which he was returned in 1849, and died a member in 1852, he was over forty years in the public service, nearly all in that of the United States-a longer period, we believe, than that of any other public man in the history of the country.

Mr. Clay was now a private citizen, in the midst of those who had welcomed him, a young man and stranger, to Kentucky; who adopted him as a son, whose appreciation of his talents and whose partiality made him what he was; who had cherished and sustained him in all his labors and battles, and who now looked up to him as a friend and father. They loved him with undying affection, and their love was reciprocated.

It was in the midst of such an assembly-a vast concourseof such recollections, associations, and sympathies, that the following speech was delivered. It will be observed, that Mr. Clay was much accustomed to begin his speeches with allusion to the circumstances of the occasion, with his heart and eyes often raised to heaven in recognition of Divine Providence, in gratitude for blessings received, or imploring Divine aid and favor for himself and for his country. In the present instance, it was an expression of thanks for a recent copious and much-needed rain. No man ever heard Mr. Clay speak disrespectfully of religion, or knew him fail to show it reverence on fit occasions. A senti

ment of piety seemed always to lie side by side in his bosom with the better feelings of his nature, and the last years of his life furnish most satisfactory evidence of his Christian character. As the world receded, heaven seemed to open on his view. He died in hope of a glorious resurrection.

But to return. Having recognized the friendly greetings of the occasion, it was naturally expected that Mr. Clay would speak on public affairs; and his speech is a brief résumé of the state of the country, and of the causes which produced it. It was made in response to the following sentiment, given by Judge Robertson, who presided on the occasion:

HENRY CLAY-Farmer of Ashland, Patriot and Philanthropist-the AMERICAN Statesman, and unrivaled Orator of the Age-illustrious abroad, beloved at home in a long career of eminent public service, often, like Aristides, he breasted the raging storm of passion and delusion, and by offering himself a sacrifice, saved the republic; and now, like Cincinnatus and Washington, having voluntarily retired to the tranquil walks of private life, the grateful hearts of his countrymen will do him ample justice; but come what may, Kentucky will stand by him, and still continue to cherish and defend, as her own, the fame of a son who has emblazoned her escutcheon with immortal renown.]

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, and Gentlemen:

It was given to our countryman, Franklin, to bring down the lightning from heaven. To enable me to be heard by this immense multitude, I should have to invoke to my aid, and to throw into my voice, its loudest thunders. As I can not do that, I hope I shall be excused for such a use of my lungs as is practicable, and not inconsistent with the preservation of my health. And I feel that it is our first duty to express our obligations to a kind and bountiful Providence, for the copious and genial showers with which he has just blessed our land-a refreshment of which it stood much in need. For one, I offer to him my humble and dutiful thanks. The inconvenience to us, on this festive occasion, is very slight, while the sum of good which these timely rains will produce, is very great and encouraging.

Fellow-citizens, I find myself now in a situation somewhat like one in which I was placed a few years ago, when traveling through the State of Indiana, from which my friend (Mr. Rariden) near me comes. I stopped at a village containing some four or five hundred inhabitants, and I had scarcely alighted before I found myself surrounded in the bar-room by every adult male resident of the place. After a while, I observed a group consulting together in one corner of the room, and shortly after, I was diffidently approached by one of them, a tall, lank, lean, but sedate and sober-looking person, with a long face and high cheek bones, who, addressing me, said he was commissioned by his neighbors to request that I would

say a few words to them. Why, my good friend, said I, I should be very happy to do any thing gratifying to yourself and your neighbors, but I am very much fatigued, and hungry, and thirsty, and I do not think the occasion is exactly suitable for a speech, and I wish you would excuse me to your friends. Well, says he, Mr. Clay, I confess I thought so myself, especially as we have no wine to offer you to drink!

Now, if the worthy citizen of Indiana was right in supposing that a glass of wine was a necessary preliminary, and a precedent condition to the delivery of a speech, you have no just right to expect one from me at this time; for, during the sumptuous repast from which we have just risen, you have offered me nothing to drink but cold water-excellent water, it is true, from the classic fountain of our lamented friend Mr. Maxwell, which has so often regaled us on celebrations of our great anniversary. [Great laughter.]

cause.

I protest against any inference of my being inimical to the temperance On the contrary, I think it an admirable cause, that has done great good, and will continue to do good as long as legal coercion is not employed, and it rests exclusively upon persuasion, and its own intrinsic merits.

I have a great and growing repugnance to speaking in the open air to a large assemblage. But while the faculty of speech remains to me, I can never feel that repugnance, never feel other than grateful sensations, in making my acknowledgments under such circumstances as those which have brought us together. Not that I am so presumptuous as to believe that I have been the occasion solely of collecting this vast multitude. Among the inducements, I can not help thinking that the fat white virgin Durham heifer of my friend, Mr. Berryman, that cost six hundred dollars, which has been just served up, and the other good things which have been so liberally spread before us, exerted some influence in swelling this unprecedentedly targe meeting. [Great laughter.]

I can but teel, Mr. President, in offering my respectful acknowledg ment for the honor done me, in the eloquent address which you have just delivered, and in the sentiment with which you concluded it, that your warm partiality, and the fervent friendship which has so long existed between us, and the kindness of my neighbors and friends around me, have prompted an exaggerated description, in too glowing colors, of my public services and my poor abilities.

I seize the opportunity to present my heartfelt thanks to the whole people of Kentucky, for all the high honors and distinguished favors which I have received, during a long residence with them, at their hands; for the liberal patronage which I received from them in my professional pursuit; for the eminent places in which they have put me, or enabled me to reach; for the generous and unbounded confidence which they have bestowed upon me, at all times; for the gallant and unswerving fidelity and attachment with which they stood by me, throughout all the trials and