But the lofty action of Mr. Clay in connection with this his country’s crisis, his prompt response to her cry for aid, his unwavering attachment to her cause, and his ardent devotion to her interests, present an example of patriotic love and zeal, which may be placed by the side of similar ones on the records of those nations, without the slightest fear of disparagement,――indeed as justifying the belief that if she had required a similar sacrifice, the victim would not have been wanting.
Mr. Clay advocated war, not as an experimental measure, not for the purpose of furnishing him an opportunity of gratifying his ambitious private projects, as his enemies desired it to be believed, but as the _dernier resort_, as that only which could raise from her prostrate condition his country, and restore her to that rank to which she was entitled as an independent nation. The result proved the correctness of his prediction, while it exposed the falsity of that pronouncing the measure as certain to eventuate in her ruin.
When he first approached the subject, he found it surrounded by a cloud of gloom, rendered dense and dark by the adverse circumstances of his country, and which was made every day more murky by the unpatriotic attitude of the disaffected, and the insidious efforts of the openly hostile. To dispel this, all his energies were directed, and on the re-assembling of congress, pursuant to adjournment, he was gratified to behold some few glimmerings of light through the sombre mass. This cheering indication, added to the reviving influence imparted to him by his recent immediate contact with the people, fired his soul with an irrepressible fervency, and caused the flame of his patriotic ardor to burn so intensely as to consume all opposing materials. For this flame, plenty of fuel was furnished by those, who evinced, by their deadly hostility, a desire to see the unequal struggle then going on between England and the United States, terminate in favor of the former. In some, this hostility, breaking over all bounds of decency, vented itself in the grossest lampoon. Their endeavors appeared more like the spasmodic efforts of a drowning man, than the skilfully directed attempts of enlightened opposers, as though they were determined, if possible, to accomplish the fulfilment of their predictions, which now, from the recent victorious feats of our arms, seemed quite dubious. Soon after the commencement of the session, the first subject of importance that came before the representatives of the people, was that of increasing the army. Mr. Clay, and those whose views were coincident with his, desired to concentrate the nation’s energies in prosecuting the war to a glorious completion; to do which, fresh and gratifying evidence had been given. To secure this, it was proposed to augment the army by a recruit of twenty thousand men. The committee on military affairs in the house reported a bill for the purpose, which was considered in committee of the whole, and debated at length. From the opposition, this proposition met the most violent assault, and also those who supported it. The warmest opposers were found in the persons of Messrs. Randolph, Pitkin and Quincy. The speech of the latter gentleman is said to have ‘produced disgust on all sides of the house,’ and for violence and abuse stands unrivalled. Its most scurrilous expressions have been expunged; enough, however, remains to determine its original character. Speaking of the war, he observed, ‘there is nothing in history like this war since the invasion of the bucaneers. The disgrace of our armies is celestial glory compared to the disgrace reflected on our country by this invasion;’ (the proposed invasion of Canada;) ‘yet it is called a war for glory! Glory? Yes, such glory as that of the tiger when he tears the bowels from the lamb, filling the wilderness with its savage roars; the glory of Zenghis Khan, without his greatness; the glory of Bonaparte.