Senator Henry Clay to James B. Clay, March 25, 1850

WASHINGTON, March 25, 1850.

MY DEAR SON,—I received together, to-day, your two favors of the 15th and 28th ultimo. I am obliged to you for the articles you have shipped for your mother and me. I shall give directions about the pigs, but I am afraid there will be great difficulty in getting them home. You can not ship home any Port wine, without paying duties here. It must come back with you, and as a part of your luggage it will not be liable to duty. I should be glad to get six or eight dozen.

I have no doubt that you may return at the end of the year, if you wish it. Whether you do so or not ought to depend on your estimate of what will most conduce to the health and happiness of your family and yourself. I should be sorry if you allowed your expenses to exceed your salary. Public functionaries are too apt to think themselves more bound than they really are to dispense hospitality. He acts wisest who limits himself to his salary.

My last letter and the dispatches from Government will have apprized you that a display of naval force is to be tried as an experiment in aid of your negotiations. If it fail to induce the Portuguese Government to pay our claims, you may have to return even sooner than you wish. I suppose it will not reach the port of Lisbon before May.

The Senate confirmed your nomination to-day as soon as it was taken up, and without any opposition. At no time was there danger of any.

I wish you were honorably and safely through your negotiations. The employment of a naval force imposes on you a delicate and heavy responsibility, of the success of which I am more anxious because I understand you advised it. You may be officially interrogated as to the object of the presence of such a force. In that case, you will pursue your instructions, and I suppose have to say that the ship is intended to take you away, if our claims are not adjusted. Commodore Morgan is a particular friend of mine and a very clever fellow. You may tell him all about Yorkshire, his pet, etc.

I have got through the winter better than I expected, but I find the colds of this month very bad.

I am glad to hear that you are on good terms with the Foreign Minister. Certainly it would be a good arrangement to get them to recognize the justice of the Armstrong claim and leave the amount to arbitration; but that they won't agree to.

Give my love to Susan, dear Lucy, and your other children. All well at home when I last heard.

I believe I mentioned the death of your uncle Porter in Arkansas, in February.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 606-7