law, allowing each member eight dollars per day for his services as a member of either House.

As early as January, 1816, Mr. CLAY had expressed his ardent sympathies in behalf of the South American Republics, which had just succeeded in throwing off the yoke of Spanish servitude, and were then struggling for an independent rank among the nations of the earth. In the debate on the proposition to reduce the direct taxation of the country, he had alluded to the existing peaceful condition of the United States, and had hinted the possibility of hostilities with Spain. He had heard that the Minister of that nation had demanded the surrender of a portion of our soil-that part of Florida lying west of the Perdido. Without speaking of it as it deserved-of the impudence of such a demand-he alluded to it as indicative of the disposition of the Spanish government. "Besides," said he, "who can tell with certainty how far it may be proper to aid the people of South America in the establishment of their independence ?" The subject, he avowed, had made a deep impression on his mind; and he was not in favor of exhausting, by direct taxes, the country of those funds, which might be needed to vindicate its rights at home, or, if necessary, to aid the cause of liberty in South America.

These remarks aroused all the spleen and enmity of Mr. RANDOLPH, and led to one of those personal passages which were of no infrequent occurrence between himself and Mr. CLAY. "As for South America," said he, in his reply to Mr. CLAY, "I am not going a tilting for the liberties of her people; they came not to our aid; let us mind our own bu. siness and not tax our people for the liberties of the peopl

of Spanish America." He went on to ridicule the notion that people of Caraccas and Mexico were capable either of enjoy. ing or of understanding liberty; and insinuated that Mr. CLAY was influenced by a desire of conquest. "The honorable gentleman," he said, "had been sent on a late occasion to Europe he had been near the field of Waterloo, and, he feared, had snuffed the carnage and caught the infection." "What," said he, "increase our standing army in time of peace, on the suggestion that we are to go on a crusade to South America ?" Mr. CLAY intimated that he had advocated no such measure. "Do I not understand the gentleman?" said Mr. RANDOLPH; "I am sorry I do not; I labor under two great misfortunes-one is that I can never understand the honorable speaker-the other is that he can never understand me: on such terms, an argument can never be maintained between us, and I shall, therefore, put an end to it." Mr. CLAY simply expressed his surprise that he could so have misunderstood his remarks, and deferred the general argument to another occasion.

Soon after, on a proposition to "prevent our citizens from selling vessels of war to a foreign power," Mr. CLAY opposed the bill, on account of its evident bearing upon the question of South American Independence: it would everywhere be understood as a law framed expressly to prevent the offer of the slightest aid to these Republics by our citizens. "With respect to the nature of their struggle," he said, "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."

In the summer of 1816, the President appointed Messrs.

RODNEY, GRAHAM and BLAND, Commissioners to ascertain the condition of the South American Republics and their ability for self-government. In March of the succeeding year, in the appropriation bill, was a clause appropriating $30,000 for their compensation. This was opposed by Mr. CLAY, on the ground that it was unconstitutional, and that the appointment had been inexpedient. It was finally temporarily laid aside, and Mr. CLAY then brought forward a provision to appropriate $18,000 as the outfit and one year's salary of a Minister from the United States to the independent provinces of the river La Plata in South America. The motion to insert this clause in the appropriation bill, was the occasion of the magnificent speech which he made on the general subject of South American Independence, on the 25th of March, 1818, and which, in every respect, is one of the most eloquent he ever pronounced. The measure, notwithstanding his zealous and powerful support, encountered the hostility of the President and a majority in Congress, and he resolution of Mr. CLAY was rejected.

Though defeated here, he did not relax b's efforts in behalf of the oppressed and struggling inhabitants of the South American Republics. On the 10th of February, 1821, he submitted a resolution in favor of an immediate recognition of their independence, although their desperate struggle was not yet closed, and supported it with all the eloquent ardot with which he had advocated his previous motion. He had watched the contest between these infant Republics and a eruel despotism, with feelings of intense concern. He had seen their fertile fields crimsoned with their blood, and had heard the agonizing cry they had sent up to Heaven and to the nations of the earth. He had learned, tco, the effect his

former efforts had produced, in awakening and sustaining their vigor and cheering them on to renewed and still more valorous exertions. His speeches had been read at the head of their armies; his name was repeated with reverence by every soldier in their ranks; and the Supreme Congress of Mexico had returned to him the national thanks for his able and disinterested labors in their behalf. He resumed the discussion of the subject, therefore, with higher hopes and a more burning zeal than had ever animated him before; and his exertions were crowned with eminent success. His resolution was carried by a vote of 87 to 68; and Mr. CLAY was appointed Chairman of a Committee to announce to President MONROE the action of the House. On the 8th of March, 1822, the President recommended to Congress the recognition. of the Independence of the South American Republics: the Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom the recommendation was referred, reported in its favor, and on the 28th the recognition was finally voted, with but a single dissenting voice. Thus, through the instrumentality of Mr. CLAY, in opposition to the views and wishes of many of his warmest friends, was this great measure of national justice adopted by the United States. The first free nation on the globe, through his exertions, thus became the first to extend à generous sympathy to those who first essayed to follow in their path of national independence. He received, for his noble efforts, the thanks, warm and heartfelt, of those in whose behalf he labored: and, though his conduct was made the theme of party clamor and invective, the sentiment of every noble spirit in this land of freedom has done justice to the magnanimity of his zeal and the purity and uprightness of his motives.

It was at about this period of his public life, that Mr. CLAY became prominent as the friend and supporter of the great system of Internal Improvements, to which he had frequently before signified his devotion. In January, 1816, in the debate upon the treaty he had just aided to conclude with Great Britain, he had declared the policy which, in his judgment, it became our government to adopt. He urged them, after providing for the military and naval defence of the country, "to commence the great work of Internal Improvement." "I would see," said he, "a chain of turnpike roads and canals from Passamaquoddy to New Orleans; and other similar roads intersecting the mountains, to facilitate intercourse between all parts of the country, and to bind and connect us together."

On the 12th of March of that year, the Republican members of Congress met to nominate a candidate for the Presidency, as President MADISON had entered upon the last year of his second term. Mr. CLAY ineffectually opposed the nomination of President in Congressional caucus, as a dangerous precedent, and as likely to encounter the opposition and disfavor of the people; and Hon. JAMES MONROE was nominated as the Republican candidate for the office of President; and at the election that ensued he was elected by a large majority. In his last message to Congress, in December, 1816, President MADISON "particularly invited the attention of Congress to the expediency of exercising their existing powers, and, when necessary, of resorting to the pre scribed mode of enlarging them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals." On the 7th of February, 1817, an able report, in favor of the projected system, containing an outline of its principal features, with a lucid