William McLain to Senator Henry Clay, February 9, 1852

COLONIZATION ROOMS, WASHINGTON CITY, February 9, 1852.

DEAR SIR, —At the recent annual meeting of the American Colonization Society, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with our venerable President, the Hon. Henry Clay, in his present protracted illness, by which we are deprived of his presence and able counsels at this annual meeting of our Society, to which he has, from its foundation, devoted himself with signal ability and unwavering fidelity; and that we hold him in affectionate and grateful remembrance for the distinguished services he has rendered in the prosecution of the great scheme of African colonization.

I take great pleasure, my dear sir, in furnishing you with the foregoing resolution.

Hoping, that you may be restored to health, and that this Society may continue to have the honor of your name and influence as its President, I remain, etc.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 626