Another bill was then fram

A bill repealing the Independent Treasury law soon passed both Houses, and was allowed to become a law by the executive. The next step in the returning path was to procure the incorporation of a United States Bank, which should regulate exchanges and control the currency. A plan for such an institution as was deemed necessary was reported in the Senate by Mr. CLAY, he having been appointed chairman of the Finance Committee. It passed both Houses, but was returned, to the surprise and alarm of the administration party, with the objections of the Executive. Mr. TYLER averred that he could not conscientiously sign a bill which proposed to give the Bank the power of discount-as such a power was liable to abuse, and he did not deem it constitutional. The veto message was received with sorrow in the Senate, and was discussed by Mr. CLAY in a strain of lofty eloquence seldom equaled even by himself. ed, with strict reference to the opinions of Mr. TYLER, in close accordance with his suggestions, and intended to obviate all his scruples, as expressed both in his public message and in private conference. This, after considerable discussion, also passed both Houses and was sent to the acting President for his signature. As it was, in point of fact, his own bill-framed according to his dictation-his approval was confidently expected. But evil counsellors, “unknown to the Constitution," had been at work, and had infused into his mind jealousies and apprehensions which made the whole matter one of passion to himself, in which considerations of the country's good and of his own plighted faith were allowed no weight. He refused to sign the bill. This message was received in Congress with indignant eloquence. Mr. CLAY had no hesitation in denouncing the exercise of the Veto power in this case, as he had done in that of Gen. JACKSON,

as an unwarrantable extension of executive power, and as hostile to the liberties and prosperity of the nation. The members of the Cabinet, with the solitary exception of Mr. WEBSTER, resigned their places, and a deep feeling of indignation was manifest throughout the country.

The subsequent events are of so recent occurrence as to preclude the propriety of detailed exposition. A Land Bill, framed in strict accordance with the principles of Mr. CLAY, and urged by his eloquent support, passed both Houses and became a law. According to its provisions, however, distribution was to cease whenever the average rate of duties on imports should exceed 20 per cent. The Bankrupt bill was matured and passed, and a revision of the Tariff, rendered necessary by the expiration of the Compromise Act, was undertaken. Notwithstanding the extreme embarrassment in which the subject was involved, a provisional bill was finally agreed upon, to meet the pressing exigency of the occasion, suspending the operation of the Distribution Bill for one month, in consequence of a lack of funds in the Treasury, and a desire, on the part of Congress, to give the subject a more mature consideration, before erecting a permanent Tariff. This bill also encountered the executive veto: and with it perished all hope of united, efficient action in carrying out those great principles which before had been cherished by Mr. TYLER, in common with the Whigs.

On the 31st of March, 1842, in pursuance of a design he had long before entertained, Mr. CLAY resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. Considerations of public duty had alone prevented him from doing this before: and in retiring at that time from the noble theatre in which he had

won such lofty fame and acted so proud a part, to the quiet shades of private life, he merely followed an intention which he had long and anxiously cherished. The scene which attended his resignation was one of deep interest. The Senate Chamber was densely filled: all present-those Senators who had always been his warm and steady friends, and those with whom he had rarely or never acted-manifested the profoundest regard for his character and high abilities, and expressed the sincerest regret at his withdrawal from their midst. The address in which he bade them farewell, is marked by all the generous frankness and the deep feeling which are prominent traits of his personal character. Since his retirement to his home at Ashland, he has frequently met his fellow-citizens at public festivals given in his honor, and has always frankly avowed his political opinions and spread before them the leading principles by which his whole public career has been guided. More enthusiastic receptions have recently been accorded to him at Lexington, in Kentucky, at Dayton, Ohio, and other places, than have often been granted to the most renowned men of the earth; and the demonstrations of popular favor have been most marked and universal. By conventions in several of the States of the Union he has been nominated as the candidate of the great party with which he has always acted, for the Presidency in 1844. He receives these public honors with dignity and gratitude-never shrinking from a declaration of all his principles, and courting the most rigid investigation into all the various actions of his extended public life. In the peaceful retirement of a happy home, he finds a welcome refuge from the cares and weighty responsibilities which have rested upon him for more than forty years of service to his country, offered in integrity, and discharged with an ability equaled by that of few statesmen in any age.

We have thus recorded the prominent public services of HENRY CLAA, with an historical sketch of his country, just sufficient to render them intelligible. His personal biography has been left untouched: but it will readily be seen that those noble qualities of mind and heart which have made so glorious his public life, must have invested his domestic relations with the highest charms. He bears about him that surest mark of greatness, the power of being "great in little things:" of lending to the most common incidents of life a dignity which stamps them with the heroism of his personal character. In public life, he is the greatest statesman of his age. His eloquence, with which the nation is most familiar, is in fact one of the slightest elements of his fame in a deeper source than this, resistless as it is, must be sought the secret of that power which has rested the nation upon his arm and interwoven his principles with the very framework of her policy. All the impulses of his heart-the instincts of his nature are those of a statesman. No crisis, however sudden or fearful, surprises or disarms him. In the most perilous emergencies, when upon the counsel or decision of an hour hangs the fate of his country for years, his lofty mind moves with the same undaunted strength as in the most trivial concerns. In the beautiful words of WORDSWORTH, we may describe him as one,

"Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,

Or mild concerns, of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace;

But who, if called upon to face

Some awful moment, to which heaven has joined

Great issues, good or bad, for human kind,

Is happy as a lover-is attired

With sudden brightness, like a man inspired;
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw."

In all his public life Mr. CLAY has evinced a firm reliance upon great and enduring principles; and in this, perhaps, may be found one chief secret of his power and foresight. A fundamental truth is always stronger than any man; and by building faith and firm reliance upon it the man shall receive a portion of its strength, and see, through the mists of the hour, the future to which it leads. The confidence of Mr. CLAY in the leading political principles which have formed the rule of all his long public life, has sprung from a firm faith in their permanent truth, and not from that blind devotion to a rule, merely because it is abstract, which belongs, sometimes, to men who have something of greatness in them, but who lack the essential wisdom to profit by experience. Though firm in maintaining the rights of each portion of the State, he never allows a passionate and blind defence of them to plunge the whole into disaster and ruin. He feels that the principles on which our government is based, have a high worth-not only of themselves, but for the sake of the superstructure of happiness and glory we have erected upon them; and the safety of this he is not willing to peril in their fruitless defence. He has none of the zeal of that ignorant worshiper who dug beneath the ruins of the Ephesian temple for the fuel on which it rested, to feed the flame upon its altars. Though he has ever proved himself a zealous defender of the rights of man, in all countries and conditions, he never seeks the destruction of established order, regardless of the happiness of those most nearly concerned; nor even in the assertion of Right would he deem it well to trample, with ruthless violence, upon all the institutions which might stand in his way, and rush headlong to the end, like the cannon ball,

"Shattering that it may reach, and shattering what it reaches."