A PIONEER BHANIPATOR
RICHMOND, KY.:
Kentucky Reg9ster Print,
s188X _
I
I
i
I
I
I
I
I
I
11I
I
This page in the original text is blank.
A PIONEER EMANCIPATOR.
[From the Nashville (Tjennesse',) American.]
On leaving for Beersleba. for the suinmer,
where he will prosecute the work of arranging
and working up the valuable material he has
collected, Col. W. G. Terrell left at the Ameri-
can office an interesting relic of the great slavery
struggle, which may be fitly called the first gun
of the war. It is a small piece of brass artillery
which was loaned bh,- Col. Terrell to Maj. J. E.
Saunders, of this County, for exhibition at the
Centennial exhibit The history of the piece in-
volves the history of a leading acto in the
great drama, in which t[e sections was inflamed
to strife. It was in 1845 toh-at Cassiut M. Clay
was engaged in the publication of the True
American at Lexington, Ky., when a brief
editorial article-'not written by Mr. Clay'--
appeared in the paper, and gave deep offense to
the people of Lexington, being regarded as in-
cendiary in character. A large meeting of its
best citizens was held, and it was resolved that
Mr. Clay's paper could not be longer published
in that city. To meet that threat, Mr. Clav had
cast in Cincinnati by the celebrated bell maker,
G. W. Coffin, two pieces of fine artillery of the
-
-
-
I
I
I
I
I i
il
I
I
I
I
. 2
very best metal, in the composition of which
was about two hundred dollars worth of silver.
These he mounted in his office, bearing on the
entrance to a pair of double doors, which had
been arranged with a chain so as to open only a
certain width. Besides this he had enlisted a
dozen bold men. The rest of his arrangements
were characteristic of that desperate courage
Mr. Clay has always displayed. He prepared
for the escape of his force when the office should
become no longer tenable and placed a keg of
powder so that he could easily touch it off, in -
tending as soon as his force had escaped and
the room had been fl1Ied by the mob to blow up
the office, his enemies andt himself to perish.
like Sampson in the ruins. No nman has ever
doubted that he would have carried out his
programme; but fortunately the excitement of
the preparation and the waiting for the attack
brought on brain fever and the office was peace-
fully removed, while he was unconscious, to
Cincinnati, where the publication was resumed
after his recovery.
The two beautiful pieces -ot artillery remained
in his possession until a few years ago, when one
of them was presented by him to his friend,
Col. W. G. Terrell.
-
I
l
I
I
i
I
i
I
i
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
i
i
I
i11
a
Mr. Clay's life in Kentucky has been one of
singular adventure an(l interest. No knight of
the period of chivalry ever maintained his honor
with more determined courage than he his opin-
ions. He was rich, a man of fine appearance
and noble presence, quiet, unassuming and cour-
teous in his bearing, and only the terrible when
aroused. Born in 1810, he imbibed the Heurv
Clay idea of emancipation while at college at
Yale, and signalled his devotion to the opinions
by emancipating about forty slaves. He was
never an abolitionist, and simply maintained the
Henry Clay idea of the inexpediency and folly
of slavery on account of its effect on the white
man and the institution of the model republic.
He pursued his own way without ever entang-
ling himself with the fanatics of the East. At
the breaking out of the Mexican war, greatly to
the surprise of his friends he raised a comnpanv
and joined the First Kentucky Cavalry, and
was captured at Incarnacion-a capture which
was one of the events of the war, in which he
refused to kneel before his captors at the risk of
his life. In 1850 he was a candidate for the State
Constitutional Convention and became involved
in a personal difficulty with Hon. C. W. Turner,
whose father was his opponent. In the alterca-
4
tion Mr. Turner was killed andl Mr. Clay des-
perately wounded. He had previously had a
difficulty with Maj. Sam. F. Brown, of Fayette
county, whom he literally cut to pieces with
a bowie knife. This also grew out of politics.
He was a candidate for (covernor of Kentucky,
making his canvasses armed to the teeth and at
the peril of his life, but was never seriously
molested. He was made Major Geiieral of volin-
teers in 1862, but went again to Russia fs
Minister, where he remained until 1869.
One of his duels was with Bob -Wickliffe, a son
of Gov. WVickliffe. Albert Sidney Johnston
was i second in the affair.
Such is a brief sketch of a man who was a
leading actor in a great drama. In thegreatest
part of the drama, thie preparation of the trait),
which led to the denouement, the coiflict of
opinions, he was a chief actor, and, as Minister
to Russia, when we consider the great part Rus-
sia played in our struggle, he -did more, perhaps,
than any General in the field in the war itself.
Since his reLurn from Russia he has. resided on
his paternal acres in Madison county. Ky., a
bold, outspoken Democrat, and it is a singular
fact that he was compelled a few years since to
kill one of the race he helped to emancipate, in
-
I
=
i
I
5
defense of his own life. He is now a hale,
end looking Lnan of seventy, respected by all
those who once hell his opinions in detestation;
genial, kind, the very soul of courtesy, disposed
only to regard the far future moral effect of the
policy lhe advocated to a successful issue, and in-
dulging in no sentimental nonesense about the
race which happened to be the object of his care.
He labors and votes for Democratic ideas of
government, and indulges in no regrets over
the splendid career he held in his hands and
threw away to pursue his convictions.
In the hands of a Macauley or a Scott, his
life would be a romance, without plot or need for
embellishment. In the American Encyclopedia,
of Appleton, he is set down as a relative of
Henry Clay, which is about as near as the Amer-
ican (Cyclopedia ever gets to anything. He
was an admirer of, and acknowledges Henry
Clay as his teacher, but they were not nearly
related. It is the singular fate of such men to
be obscured in their own time by the Grants
and Shermans who. burn powder and make a
noise, but Mr. Clay was the more potent actor
where Grant and Sherman would have been
babies. Such men as Mr. Clay stand out in
their own full stature in after times for succeed-
I
I
I
ing generaLions, when epauleited nobodies off
only remembered as movers of men as piecesof
a board. He could throw away honors for COD
viction sake, and struggle like a giant against ter
rible odds, and when the moral and intellectual
conflict was over and the strife of arms ended
he could again take the minority side, and labor
for the Democratic theories of government,
which slavery- alone prevented his advocating
before, anti that when the Gira[ts and Shermans
were abandoning their own convictions, that re-
rewar3 might follow with the strong side. The
interesting relic which has furnished the occa-
sion for this article may be seen at the American
office on Bank Alley. We have been glad of
the occasion to speak thus of a man whose de-
votion to principles dwarfs all the pigmy re-
wards won by men who could more easily bend
! towards narrow self interest. The time is now
at hand when those who have held the minority
opinions are about to be honored in themselves
or in their memories, and the pigmy epauletted
are shrinking into microscopic littleness in the
back-ground.
Al
------
i
I