of half a century, and that the sum of all the intervals in it will not
amount to ten years. But mere duration of time in office constitutes the
smallest part of Mr. Clay's history. Throughout that long period he has
constantly been the most loved and most implicitly followed by friends,
and the most dreaded by opponents, of all living American politicians. In
all the great questions which have agitated the country, and particularly
in those fearful crises, the Missouri question, the nullification
question, and the late slavery question, as connected with the newly
acquired territory, involving and endangering the stability of the Union,
his has been the leading and most conspicuous part. In 1824 he was first
a candidate for the Presidency, and was defeated; and, although he was
successively defeated for the same office in 1832 and in 1844, there has
never been a moment since 1824 till after 1848 when a very large portion
of the American people did not cling to him with an enthusiastic hope and
purpose of still elevating him to the Presidency. With other men, to be
defeated was to be forgotten; but with him defeat was but a trifling
incident, neither changing him nor the world's estimate of him. Even
those of both political parties who have been preferred to him for the
highest office have run far briefer courses than he, and left him still
shining high in the heavens of the political world. Jackson, Van Buren,
Harnson, Polk, and Taylor all rose after, and set long before him. The
spell--the long-enduring spell--with which the souls of men were bound to
him is a miracle. Who can compass it? It is probably true he owed his
pre-eminence to no one quality, but to a fortunate combination of
several. He was surpassingly eloquent; but many eloquent men fail
utterly, and they are not, as a class, generally successful. His judgment
was excellent; but many men of good judgment live and die unnoticed. His
will was indomitable; but this quality often secures to its owner nothing
better than a character for useless obstinacy. These, then, were Mr.
Clay's leading qualities. No one of them is very uncommon; but all