Senator Henry Clay to James Clay, March 16, 1850

WASHINGTON, March 17, 1850.

MY DEAR SON,—I was at the Department of State yesterday, and some of your last dispatches were shown me, and important instructions to you were also read to me. These instructions are to be sent to you in duplicate, one copy by the mail, and the other copy through Commodore Morgan, who is to proceed to Lisbon in one of the ships of the line, and to deliver to you the copy which he bears. He is then to await your orders. It is not understood that you are to act finally on these instructions until the arrival of the Commodore, but that you should, in the mean time, go on with the negotiation for our claims, and conclude, if you can, a convention for their payment.

This course of proceeding will impose on you a heavy responsibility, and you should act with great care, caution, and discretion. If you could prevail on the Portuguese Government to pay a sum in block, or in gross, for the amount and in full satisfaction of all our claims on that Government, it might save its honor in contesting the Armstrong case. It might stipulate to pay a specified sum, and leave the distribution of it, among the claimants, to our Government. I do not know whether you have a knowledge of all the claims and the means of fixing on their just amount. I was surprised to hear at the Department that it was much greater than I had supposed. I would not insist upon extravagant or extreme allowances. I should think that if the owners of the Armstrong got $50,000 they might be satisfied.

If, after the arrival of Commodore Morgan, and after you have ascertained that no arrangement of our claims can previously be made, the Portuguese Government should persist in refusing to do us justice, as I understood the instructions, you are to notify that Government of your purpose to leave Lisbon, demand your passports, and come away. The Commodore is not to employ force, which would be an act of war which the President has no power to authorize.

I suppose that this measure of sending a public vessel into the port of Lisbon has been adopted upon your advice, at least in part. I hope it may succeed; but if the Portuguese Government has the promise of British succor, it is not so likely to be successful. In the present distracted state of this country, and the weak condition of the Administration in Congress, it is much to be feared that your departure from Lisbon without the settlement of our claims, after the contemplated display of naval force, will not be followed up by the employment of the coercion which the serious steps you are authorized to take would seem to require. Hence the great importance of an amicable settlement if one can be made. And hence also I think our claims should be brought down to their minimum amount. If your negotiation should finally fail, I suppose that we may see you back in the United States before the close of this year. My last accounts from home represented all well. Give my love to Susan and the children.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 604-5