Senator Henry Clay to James B. Clay, January 2, 1849

WASHINGTON, January 2, 1849.

MY DEAR SON,—I received your letter of the 27th November, and I was happy to hear of the continued health of Susan and your children, and especially that she had so easy an accouchement. That was the result of her previous exercise and the climate of Lisbon.

I am sorry to hear of the bad prospect of your getting our claims satisfied. I wrote you a few days ago, giving a long account of an interview which I had with the Portuguese minister, etc., about the case of the General Armstrong. In the course of it, he told me that he thought some of our claims were just, and so did the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that they would be paid. If we are to come to any appeal to force, perhaps it will be as well that they should reject them all, those which are clearly just as well as those which are contestable. But, as it would be a feather in your cap, I should like that you would get them all owned, or as many as you can.

The minister told me that the owners of the General Armstrong demanded $250,000. That sum strikes me to be erroneous. If they agree to admit the claim, you might stipulate to have the amount fixed by some commission; or, which would be better, if the owners have an agent at Lisbon, you might get him to fix the very lowest sum which they would be willing to receive, which might not exceed one fifth of the sum demanded.

I mentioned confidentially to Sir H. Bulwer, the British minister, my apprehensions of a difficulty with Portugal, and he said he would write to Lord Palmerston, and suggest to him to interpose his good offices, etc. He told me that a brother of Lord Morpeth was the British Chargé at Portugal. If he resembles his brother, you will find him a clever fellow.

No certain developments are yet made of what Congress may do on the subject of slavery. I think there is a considerable majority in the House, and probably one in the Senate, in favor of the Wilmot proviso. I have been thinking much of proposing some comprehensive scheme of settling amicably the whole question, in all its bearings; but I have not yet positively determined to do so. Meantime some of the Hotspurs of the South are openly declaring themselves for a dissolution of the Union, if the Wilmot proviso be adopted. This sentiment of disunion is more extensive than I had hoped, but I do not regard it as yet alarming. It does not reach many of the Slave States.

You complain of not hearing from Kentucky. I have the same complaint. I have not received a letter from John for a long time. My last was from Thomas, of the 18th ult. They were then all well.

I am glad to hear that Henry is placed at school, but am sorry that his defects continue to display themselves. We must hope that he will correct them as he grows older, and in the mean time console ourselves that his faults are not worse than they are.

My love to Susan, the boys, and your children.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 582-3

Senator Henry Clay to James B. Clay, December 29, 1849

WASHINGTON, December 29, 1849.

MY DEAR JAMES, —I received your letter, communicating an account of Susan's confinement, and I was delighted to hear that she had given birth to a son, with so little of pain and suffering. I hope that she has continued to do well, and that the new comer has also been hearty. In the fine climate where you are, I trust that all your family enjoy good health.

I hear from home, but not as often as I could wish.

After three weeks, Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, a Democrat, was elected Speaker, and it was so much more important that the House should be organized than that whether Whig or Democrat should be chosen, that I was glad an election was made. Nothing of importance has yet been done in Congress.

The Portuguese Minister called on me to-day, and I had a long, long interview with him, both on matters personally relating to you, and on public affairs, the latter, of course, confidentially.

He tells me that you have a fine house and a delightful situation on the Tagus, with a beautiful prospect, etc., but that they made you pay too much rent for it.

I endeavored to impress him very seriously about our claims on Portugal, and that their rejection might lead to very grave consequences. I authorized him to communicate what I said to him to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He read to me a very ingenious and plausible argument in the case of the General Armstrong, but I told him that I thought it only ingenious and plausible, and that I thought the American claim was well founded. One of his points was that the General Armstrong began the conflict. To which I replied that the British boats approached the Armstrong in hostile array; and that, when hailed, refusing to avow whether their purposes were amicable or hostile, the Armstrong was not bound to wait until they struck the first blow, but, being authorized to conclude that their purpose was to board and capture her, she had a right to defend herself, and anticipate the fall of the blow. Exactly as, when an assault is made on a man, not yet followed by a battery, he is not bound to await the battery, but may defend himself forthwith.

As to the weakness of Portugal, since the treaty of Methuen, she has been an ally, and somewhat dependent on Great Britain. Her feelings and sympathies were with the British, and against the Armstrong. She not only did not protect the Armstrong, which as a neutral power she ought to have done, but she did nothing to repel the British violation of her jurisdiction. She did worse; when the crew of the Armstrong was brought on shore, she (Portugal) suffered and connived at their being mustered by, or in presence of, British officers, that they might select from the array those whom they chose to consider British seamen! Never was such an indignity before offered! Never before or since did Great Britain ever attempt to exercise her pretended right of impressment within the jurisdictional limits of a neutral or third power, or any where but in her own ports, or on the high seas.

The Portuguese Minister cited certain provisions of our treaty with Great Britain of 1794, and other treaties, making provision for the case of captures within the waters of the respective parties by a belligerent of either of them, etc. To all which I replied, that those treaties took the case from without the operation of the general public law, but did not affect the condition of powers (of which Portugal was one) having no such treaties with us; that as to these powers, the national law furnished the rule; and that, in cases like the Armstrong, that rule required either protection or indemnity. Protection had not been afforded, and indemnity was therefore justly due.

My manner was intentionally very earnest; and I sought to impress the Minister with the belief I entertain, that if satisfaction of our claims be withheld, it will be sought for by coercion. And I told him that I should be grieved if we had any war with Portugal, especially when my son was the accredited representative of the United States at Lisbon. I told him that I hoped he would impress his Government with the gravity of existing circumstances. He was hurt at the reference in the President's Message to this affair; but I informed him that I had reason to believe that, at one time, it was contemplated to refer to it much more seriously, and I supposed this had not been done in consequence of a hope entertained that your dispatches might soon bring the welcome intelligence that our claims had been admitted and provided for.

He spoke of a proposition before the Portuguese Cortes to elevate the grade of the mission to this country. I told him that the adjustment of our claims would be an agreeable, if not indispensable preliminary to a similar elevation of the rank of our Minister to Portugal, etc.

I presume that they will send you, from the Department of State, the President's Message, and all other public documents. My love to Susan, to dear little Lucy, and all your children, and to H. Clay, and Thomas.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 595-7

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

James B. Clay to Senator Henry Clay, May 26, 1850

LISBON, May 26, 1850.

MY DEAR FATHER,—You can not imagine in what a state of uncertainty, uneasiness, and expectation, we have been during this entire month. I had been informed by Mr. Clayton that it was the opinion of the Secretary of the Navy that the ship from the Mediterranean, with my final instructions, would reach here by the 1st of this month, and it is now nearly the last, and it has not arrived. I have seen by the English papers that the storeship Erie, which, I presume, took Commodore Morgan his orders, was lying, with the commodore, in the harbor of Naples, on the 27th last month, in fifteen days after he ought to have been here; why he is not, God only knows. I have been constantly uneasy for fear that his non-arrival might prejudice the settlement of our affairs; and if this Government had a grain of common sense, it would have done so very much. Their true policy, having determined not to pay, was most certainly to offer an arbitration of all the claims, and I have been every instant fearing that such an offer would be made; a rejection of it, which I would have to make, would, of course, have put us in a worse position before the world.

The English Chargé, Mr. Howard, the brother of the Earl of Carlisle, told me the other day, that Mr. Bulwer had written to Lord Palmerston, as he promised you, to advise these people to pay all the claims which were just, and to offer to arbitrate the others; and I presume he did so, for Mr. Howard told me, at the same time, that Count Fayal had informed him that he had offered to arbitrate all. This impression he has been for some time trying to create, through the papers and otherwise. You may have seen an article in "The London Times" speaking of my rejection of the offer, etc.; this, I know, was denied from Fayal, who shows every thing to the correspondent of that paper. Lord Palmerston has very little influence here. He has been always opposed to the Cabral Ministry, and there is no goodwill between them. I took occasion to inform Mr. Howard, that it was wholly untrue that Count Fayal had offered to arbitrate all our claims, and said that I had no objection to his so informing his Government.

I can not predict what will be the effect produced by the coming of the ship, if ever she does arrive, or of my demand for my passport, if they don't pay. Our action has, throughout the affair, been so dilatory, that I am sure it can not have so great influence as promptness would have done. It has always been my opinion that I ought to have been sent here in a ship of war, with the same instructions given at last. Our position at the time of my arrival was by all odds better than it is now.

Should we be suffered to go away, I am undetermined whether we shall go to Naples and to Paris, through Italy and Switzerland, or go at once to Paris. I shall be determined by Commodore Morgan's course. If he offers to take us to Naples, as it will not be out of his way, I shall accept. If we go that way, we will still reach America in November.

As the season has arrived for Southerners to be in Kentucky, perhaps my house could now be sold. I should like it to be; as on our return home, if you won't sell me Ashland, I am determined to try and buy Crutchfield's place on the Ohio. Can you write to Trotter or Pindell about the house?

28th.—Commodore Morgan has not arrived, and I am in hourly expectation of receiving, what I feared I should receive, a proposition to arbitrate all the claims. I dined last night with the Duke of Leuchtenberg, the son-in-law of the Emperor of Russia, at the Russian Legation, when the Minister asked if I had received such a proposition, as Count Fayal had told him he intended to make it. He seemed surprised when I told him I had not. I shall regret to receive it, because I think my instructions will oblige me to reject it, and I know it will place us in a worse position before the world. Either Commodore Morgan has had orders of which I was not informed, or he has not been as active as he might, and ought to have been.

Nine o'clock at night.—I have just received a note from the Minister, stating the willingness of his Government to arbitrate all the claims, but as he rejects the last of them in the same note, and as his language is not a distinct proposition to arbitrate, I shall not so consider it.

We are all well, and Susan joins me in affectionate love to you.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 607-9

Senator Henry Clay to James B. Clay, May 27, 1850

WASHINGTON, May 27, 1850.

MY DEAR SON,—I have written to you less of late than I wished, owing to my perpetual public occupations. We are yet in the midst of our slavery discussions, with no certainty of the final result. I have hopes of the final success of the compromise reported by me of the Committee of Thirteen, but with less confidence than I desire.

By this time, I presume that your public duties at Lisbon are brought to an unsuccessful close. I fear that the display of force in the port of Lisbon has not been attended with the benefit anticipated from it.

I have got Henry Clay admitted as a cadet in West Point, and he has gone home to see his relations, and to return to me next week to enter the Academy.

You will see in the papers that I have spoken a great deal (much more than I wished) in the Senate. In my last speech I had to attack the plan of the Administration, for compromising our slavery difficulties; its course left me no other alternative. My friends speak in terms of extravagant praise of my speeches, and especially of the last.

Since I began this letter, I received your letter of the 28th April, with Susan's long and interesting letter to her mother, which I have read and forwarded this moment.

I do not entertain much hope of the effect of the display of naval force in getting our claims allowed, and consequently I expect you will leave Lisbon soon after you receive this letter. Should they be allowed, and should Portugal raise the rank of her representatives, I suppose the measure would be reciprocated by our Executive.

I am delighted to hear that you are all so happy, and that dear Lucy has some good prospect of recovery.

I send a letter from Mary to Susan, and I am to blame for some delay in its transmission. My love to her, and to all your dear children.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 609-10

Senator Henry Clay to Thomas H. Clay, August 15, 1850

NEWPORT, August 15, 1850.

MY DEAR THOMAS,—I received your two last letters, the last inclosing one from Mary to Susan, which I have forwarded. James will return in October or November; he has closed his negotiation, and although he has concluded no convention with Portugal, he has succeeded in placing our claims with that Government on a much better footing than they ever stood before. He has sent old Aaron home, and he is now in Washington. I have been benefited by my visit to this place, and shall remain here about a week longer. It is so cool here as to require the use of fires.

They are passing through the Senate, in separate bills, all the measures of our Compromise, and if they should pass the House also, I hope they will lead to all the good effects which would have resulted from the adoption of the Compromise.

I have seen Henry Pindle's wife here, and I was very glad to hear from her that your mother is in good health, and that she has been enjoying more of society than she has been accustomed to do.

Give my love to Mary and the children.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 611-2

Senator Henry Clay to James Clay, March 6, 1850

WASHINGTON, March 6, 1850.

MY DEAR SON,—I have been so excessively occupied that I have written less to you than I wished. Henry Clay came safely to me, and I have placed him, for the present, at the Georgetown College, where he seems contented.

Nothing has occurred since I last wrote to you on your Portuguese affairs. And I presume that no communication will be made to Congress in respect to them, until we settle, if we ever do settle, the Slavery subject. On this subject I made a speech, and offered a plan of compromise, of which I send you a copy. The speech has produced a powerful and salutary effect in the country and in Congress. Whether the plan will be adopted or not remains to be seen. I think if any is finally adopted it will be substantially mine.

The Kentucky Legislature has passed moderate resolutions, given me no instructions, and refused to be represented in the Nashville Convention. All this is well.

My relations to the Executive are civil but not very cordial or confidential. There has been much talk all the session about changes in the Cabinet, and the retirement of Mr. Clayton especially. I am inclined to think that there is some foundation for the rumors.

All are well at home.

My love to Susan, Lucy and the rest of the children.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 601-2

Senator Henry Clay to James Clay, March 13, 1850

WASHINGTON, March 13, 1850.

MY DEAR JAMES,—I have just received your favor of the 8th ultimo. I suppose that the bad state of things here has prevented Clayton from writing to you, and probably prevented the Executive from calling the particular attention of Congress to Portuguese affairs.

You will do well, if any arrangement can be effected of any of our claims, to obtain the written concurrence of the agents of the claimants, if they have any agents near you. And if none, and a real doubt and difficulty occur, not covered by your instructions, you had better take the matter ad referendum to your own Government.

We are still in the woods here, on the Slavery question, and I don't know when we shall get out of them. Bad feelings have diminished, without our seeing, however, land. All other business is superseded or suspended. I do not absolutely despair of a settlement on the basis of my resolutions.

My information from home is good. All are well there. Thomas continues to be encouraged by the prospects of his sawmill, and other prospects.

Tell Susan that I read her letter with great interest, and I have sent it to her mother. Her interview with the Queen, with all its attending circumstances, was quite imposing. As her health is so good at Lisbon, I do not think that you should be in a hurry to return home, although whenever you do come we shall be most happy to see you. Henry Clay, Jr., remains at the Georgetown College.

I have seen a good deal of Sir Henry Bulwer and his lady, both of whom are intelligent and agreeable. He promised me, as I believe I informed you, to write to Lord Palmerston on our affairs with Portugal.

Give my love to Susan, to Lucy and all the children. Tell Susan that I will write to her when I can.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 602-3

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

The year 1861 was unlucky to the crowned heads . . .

. . . as Napoleon truly observed in his New Year’s day speech.  Prussia buried a King, the effete Sultan of Turkey sank into the grave, the Emperor of China was struck down, Portugal lost a youthful and noble sovereign.  The future historian of 1861 will not, as we hope, esteem it beneath his dignity to include a line of obituary for the dusky sovereigns of Dahomey and Madagascar.  An assassin’s had strove to take the life of the New King of Prussia and a crack brained Athenian enthusiast made an attempt of a similar nature upon the Queen of Greece.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2