The first public expression of Mr. Clay’s feelings in relation to South American independence, was made in connection with a proposition to reduce the direct taxes of the United States, which he thought too high for a state of peace. The aspect of our foreign relations at that time was peculiarly amicable, although, from a report that the Spanish minister had made an informal demand for a portion of Florida, seemed to indicate that a rupture with Spain was by no means improbable, and he expressed himself in favor of husbanding our means as much as practicable, in anticipation of such an event. At the same time, he hinted the propriety of assisting her colonial dependents in their endeavors to establish a free government. His remarks caused Mr. Randolph to express his sentiments concerning the same subject, which among other things charged Mr. Clay with entertaining a desire for conquest, indeed as being influenced by unworthy motives. He said he was not ‘going a tilting for the liberties of South America.’ She came not to our aid; let us mind our own business, and not tax our people for the liberties of the people of Spanish America. He declared that her inhabitants were incapable of appreciating or enjoying liberty. He thought Mr. Clay had imbibed the war-spirit of Europe. ‘The honorable gentleman has been sent on a late occasion to Europe; he had been near the field of Waterloo, and he was apprehensive had snuffed the carnage and caught the infection.’ He intimated that Mr. Clay advocated an increase of the army for the purpose of marching them to the scene of action. ‘What! increase our standing army in time of peace on the suggestion that we are to go on a crusade to South America?’ Mr. Clay denied having made the most remote suggestions to that effect,――that his remarks were incapable of being so construed. ‘Do I not understand the gentleman?’――‘I am sorry I do not. I labor under two great misfortunes――I can never understand the honorable speaker, and he can never understand me.’ Such being the case, Mr. Randolph remarked, he should be under the necessity of abandoning the argument with him, since it would be impossible to proceed.
Mr. Clay again alluded to the same subject a few days after, in a most feeling manner. A bill was brought forward to prohibit ‘our citizens from selling vessels of war to subjects of a foreign power,’ which he vigorously opposed because of its evident bearing upon the belligerent state of South America. He said it was impossible to conceal the true character of that bill. ‘Bestow upon it what denomination you will, disguise it as you may, it will be understood by the world as a law to discountenance any aid being given to the South American patriots, now in a state of revolution against the parent country. With respect to the nature of that struggle, I have not now for the first time to express my opinion and wishes. I wish them independence. It is the first step towards improving their condition. Let them have a free government, if they are capable of enjoying it. At any rate let them have independence. _Yes, from the inmost recesses of my soul I wish them independence._ In this I may be accused of imprudence in the utterance of my feelings on this occasion. I care not, when the independence, the happiness, the liberty of a whole people is at stake, and that people our neighbors, our brethren occupying a portion of the same continent, imitating our example, and participating of the same sympathies with ourselves.’