Congressman Horace Mann, July 23, 1850

JULY 23, 1850.

Yesterday Mr. Clay made his closing speech on the Compromise Bill. He spoke three hours and ten minutes, and seemed to retain his vigor and mental activity to the last. It is certainly very remarkable. He is now in his seventy-fourth year. For more than two months, he has sat in his seat every day, listening to the attacks made upon his favorite measures, occasionally replying when he thought it expedient, sometimes by a speech of half an hour, and always alive and on the alert; and now, at the end of this long and intense vigilance, he makes a speech of more than three hours, full of energy and skill, and comes out of it alive. He is certainly an extraordinary man, prepared by nature to do great and good things, but has not fulfilled his destiny in regard to the latter.

Every day of my life impresses the conviction upon me more and more, how important is the early direction given to the sentiments as well as to the intellect. There is now power enough among the educated men of the country to save it, if that power were rightly directed.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 309