Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1910 — ANECDOTE OF CLAY. [ARTICLE]

ANECDOTE OF CLAY.

Incident Showing— the Eateem In Which the Senator Was Held. Adla.l Stevenson, commenting on Henry Clay, tells this anecdote, an exchange says: ' Possibly since the foundation of the government, no statesman has been so completely idolized by his friends and party as was Henry Clay. Words are meaningless when the attempt is made to express the idolatry of the Whigs of his own state for their great chieftain. For a lifetime he knew no rival. His wish was law to his followers. In the realm of party leadership a greater than he hath not appeared. At his last defeat for the presidency strong men wept hitter tears. When his star set it was felt to be the signal for the dissolution of the great party of which he was the founder. In words worthy to be recalled, "when the tidings came llko wailing over the state that Harry Percy’s spur was cold, the chivalrous felt somehow the world had grown commonplace.” The following incident, along the line Indicated, may be considered characteristic. While Mr. Clay was a senator a resolution in accordance with a sometime custom was introduced into the Kentucky house of representatives instructing the senators from that state to vote in favor of a certain bill then pending in Congress. The resolution was In the act of passing without opposition when a hitherto silent member from one of the mountain counties, springing to his feet, exclaimed: “Me. Speaker, am I to understand that this legislature is undertaking to tell Henry Clay how t.-o vote?” The speaker answered that sucji was the purport of the resolution. At which the member from the mountains, throwing up his arms, exclaimed, "Great God!” and sunk Into his Beat. It is needless to add' th&i the resolution was immediately rejected by an unanimous vote.